Oral Answers to Questions

James Wild Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

Every constituency has members of the MPS who are benefiting from this. I hope the Conservative party welcomes a Labour Government acting on this injustice—there is not much sign of that, though. My hon. Friend the Member for Makerfield (Josh Simons) makes the point about commemorating the work of miners, which is something that I feel strongly about and that we will pursue.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

I am sure that any of my constituents who stand to benefit from this increase will welcome it, but how many members of the mineworkers’ pension scheme will be losing out on winter fuel payments worth up to £300 due to the decisions that this Government have taken?

[Ed Miliband]

This is actually to do with the disastrous economic legacy that was left by the Conservative party. The truth is that, even in tough times, the Labour Government are showing with their decisions on the MPS how we can make our society more just.

COP29

James Wild Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend and constituency neighbour is absolutely right about that. This is where the opportunities are huge. For South Yorkshire, there are opportunities around hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and the jobs in insulating homes. We know that many of our industrial heartlands have been crying out for good jobs and good wages, and they have been crying out for them for a long time. This is the opportunity to make that happen.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

COP leaders agreed to triple climate finance to $300 billion a year. The Secretary of State referred to the spending review in his statement, but the Prime Minister signed up to that international commitment. The Secretary of State must know how much the UK will have to pay. Will he tell the House?

[Ed Miliband]

That is not the way it works. We set a global total and then it is for individual countries to come forward with their contribution—that is the way it works.

Contracts for Difference

James Wild Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the legacy of the last Government. To widen her point, I would say to Members across the House—we need to be candid that this is hard for us as constituency MPs—that there is a need to connect debates in this House about fuel poverty and energy bills and the decisions that are being made in our areas. Candidly, unless we build the grid, solar and onshore wind, we will never get off the rollercoaster of international gas markets. All of us face a choice. We need a public debate about this, because if we are to tackle fuel poverty and do the things that I described, building is required, and we need to make that happen.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

I gently say to the Secretary of State that he promised at the general election to bring energy bills down by £300. They are now going up by 10% in October. When will my constituents see the reductions that those in his party promised—or did they not mean it?

[Ed Miliband]

I think that tonight, the hon. Gentleman will think that that was not a very smart point to make. Weeks after we came into office, the price cap went up. I have explained why the price cap went up—because of our reliance on international gas markets. The decision that he has to make is this: does he support our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower in order to bring bills down, or does he not?

Energy Security and Net Zero

James Wild Excerpts

Monday 2nd September 2024 Written Corrections

[James Wild]

Plans for 90 miles of pylons from Lincolnshire to my North West Norfolk constituency and new substations are strongly opposed by local communities. Will the Secretary of State commit to a review of network technologies, and consider a presumption in favour of underground or offshore proposals?

[Edward Miliband]

I will look at all proposals, but I think the hon. Gentleman knows that underground cables cost six to 10 times more; that is why the last Government did not agree to them.

[Official Report, 18 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 206.]

Written correction submitted by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Ed Miliband):

Clean Energy Superpower Mission

James Wild Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Edward Miliband]

Let me welcome my hon. Friend to her place, and congratulate her on her election; she will be a great Member of Parliament. She raises such an important issue. More than 3 million people are in fuel poverty in our country. One thing that this Government will do that the last Government did not is demand that landlords raise the standard of their accommodation to a proper energy performance certificate standard C by 2030. That will make a dent in this issue, but the House should be in no doubt about our ambition to cut that number of 3.2 million as much as possible in the five years of this Parliament.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

Plans for 90 miles of pylons from Lincolnshire to my North West Norfolk constituency and new substations are strongly opposed by local communities. Will the Secretary of State commit to a review of network technologies, and consider a presumption in favour of underground or offshore proposals?

[Edward Miliband]

I will look at all proposals, but I think the hon. Gentleman knows that underground cables cost six to 10 times more; that is why the last Government did not agree to them. If part of our challenge is to cut bills for people, that is not a sustainable solution for the future. I am sympathetic to all MPs who raise issues on behalf of their constituents, but I gently say again to him that if we want to avoid a repeat of the cost of living crisis, if we want to tackle the climate crisis, and if we want energy security, we will have to build the grid in our country.

Gas-fired Power Stations

James Wild Excerpts

Wednesday 13th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

The hon. Gentleman, who is supposed to lead on this subject for his party, should have listened to what I said earlier. In 2022, 38% of generation came from gas. By the mid-2030s, it will be 1% or 2%. Why are we having it? To balance the renewables we are growing, particularly in Scotland, and support Scottish jobs. Of course if we put generation in Scotland when the demand is in the south, we have to provide connecting infrastructure. Previous generations had to wire up the UK to become the rich and prosperous country we are today. We need to do it again now. We are working with local communities, listening to their voices and making sure they are not misled by people who come up with such nonsense as the hon. Gentleman just did.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

I commend my right hon. Friend for his refreshingly clear articulation of our strong record in this area, both in the House today and in the media yesterday. Obviously, security of supply must come first. How will the plans incentivise investment in back-up gas-fired power stations, while minimising costs to consumers, which is also very important?

[Graham Stuart]

I thank my hon. Friend. He and my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg) are absolutely right to focus on the economics. We have to get the economics right. We have used an auction-type mechanism in the capacity market to ensure flexible capacity. We are incentivising more and more of that to be low carbon, with batteries coming in at scale, as well as pumps and potentially hydrostorage. We also need hydrogen and carbon capture. We are ensuring a balanced system with discipline built into it to drive costs down. When CBAMs and so on come on stream, I firmly expect that in the 2030s we will have lower-cost energy than our neighbours and we will, as my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset referred to, be more economically competitive.

Oral Answers to Questions

James Wild Excerpts

Tuesday 27th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Andrew Bowie)]

The SNP, blinded by a misplaced belief in its own exceptionalism, seems almost alone in the world in not recognising the benefits of new nuclear when it comes to meeting our net zero objectives, delivering our energy security and improving our baseload. At last year’s COP, 30 countries around the world came together to commit to increasing nuclear-generated capacity by 30%. It would be brilliant if Scotland could be part of that change, but the SNP and its luddite partners in the Green party are holding Scotland back. We are determined not to do that for the rest of the UK.

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

Plans for a new incinerator in Wisbech are strongly opposed by my constituents and those of my right hon. Friends the Members for North West Cambridgeshire (Shailesh Vara) and for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss). With 300 lorry trips a day and a structure bigger than Ely cathedral, there would be serious health and environmental concerns for the nearest school. Will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State visit the site to see for herself why the plans are wholly inappropriate?

[Andrew Bowie]

The Secretary of State will be happy to engage with my hon. Friend, and I too would be delighted to visit the site to look into the issues that he has raised.