Oral Answers to Questions

Graeme Downie Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Graeme Downie (Dunfermline and Dollar) (Lab)]

9. What steps he is taking to improve grid infrastructure.

[The Minister for Energy (Michael Shanks)]

We are building a resilient grid for the future after decades of under-investment. We are halving the development time for new transmission infrastructure, including through reforms to planning regulation and supply chains, and delivering the grid capacity needed to deliver clean power by 2030 and the economic growth that this country needs.

[Graeme Downie]

In January, when Storm Éowyn hit the UK, hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland were without power for several days. That included thousands of my constituents, in rural villages such as Oakley and Blairhall, and a number were reliant on power for critical medical equipment. Engineers performed heroic work to restore power as quickly as possible, but that was delayed by outdated grid infrastructure. As the new winter storm season has already begun this year, what steps are the Minister and the Department taking to ensure the future reliance of the grid to withstand worsening storms? How can that be done to protect vulnerable people in my constituency and across the UK?

[Michael Shanks]

My hon. Friend asks an incredibly important question. First, I would like to thank all the engineers and customer service staff who worked through the recent Storm Amy to ensure that people were reconnected as quickly as possible, including in some incredibly difficult circumstances—they did a fantastic job. We are trying to ensure that the UK’s grid remains as resilient as possible. That requires investment, and those who oppose the building of new infrastructure to improve our grid’s resilience will need to explain to their constituents why they want them to be much more at risk of disconnections in those storms.

Secondly, these storms are becoming more common, because climate change is impacting all our lives. The answer is to move more quickly towards clean power and to recognise that climate change is a problem, not to bury our heads in the sand and fail to deliver the necessary investment.