Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of the financial sector on additional financial support that may be made available to SMEs which are ineligible for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is part of a comprehensive package of support for SMEs, including business rates relief, grants and support for wage packages. The Government continues to seek to identify new areas for improvement across this support.
The Government held discussions with the banking industry prior to the launch of the CBILS. The Business Secretary continues to hold a regular dialogue with each of the biggest CBILS lenders to address feedback on how the scheme has been working and closely monitor its implementation.
The Business Secretary continues to work with banks and other finance providers to help SMEs access the finance they need and has discussed with these organisations the alternative forms of support for businesses that they are offering. The Government welcomed the statement by UK Finance on behalf of the financial sector which announced that banks, building societies and credit card providers are committed to supporting their business customers in continuing to trade.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of new transmission cables have been undergrounded in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Department does not hold this information. However, the Transmission Owners have informed me that:
In England & Wales, the only major new electricity transmission lines built in the last 10 years by National Grid are all in the London Power Tunnels Project. This involved 32km of tunnels and 64 circuit kms installed from 2011 to February 2016. Otherwise, major projects have been asset replacement projects. These have generally been like-for-like, in that overhead line components have replaced older overhead line components, and underground cables have replaced underground cables.
In the north of Scotland, of SHE Transmission’s total new circuits in the last 10 years (1,007km), 171km of these were underground cable (approx. 17%).
In the south of Scotland, of Scottish Power Transmission’s total new circuits in the last 10 years (184km), 107.5km of these were underground cable (approx. 58%).
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps the Government has taken to encourage underground cabling connecting (a) wind farm and (b) other such installations to distribution centres in order to present visual amenity and prevent adverse environmental impacts.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Government expects network companies to use the most appropriate technologies available to provide the required connection for the particular project in line with its customer’s connection needs, its statutory obligations to have regard to the environment and to mitigating adverse impacts where reasonable, and relevant planning requirements.
This is reinforced by the Government’s energy National Policy Statements (NPSs) in particular NPS EN-1[1] and NPS EN-52, which make it clear that proper consideration should be given to all feasible means of connection, including undergrounding.