Oral Answers to Questions

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Amanda Solloway]

Clearly this is an issue that concerns us in the Government, which is why we are striving to do everything that we can to make sure that we are solving the issue.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

T10. The giant pylons—they are absolutely huge—associated with the transmission route have caused grave concern in the highlands. Can I have an assurance that strong consideration will be given to undergrounding the cables near the communities that are affected and, indeed, to going under the ocean where that is possible? [Interruption.]

[Justin Tomlinson]

While the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) heckles to say that there is yet another nimby, we recognise that we want to work with communities and respect local knowledge to inform present and future works. All transmission projects are required to progress through the robust planning process, which includes statutory consultations and individual planning reviews, and I am sure that the hon. Member will feed into that directly.

Energy Rebates: Highlands and Islands

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Wednesday 6th March 2024 Westminster Hall

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the introduction of energy rebates for Highlands and Islands.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Paisley. Before I start the debate, may I thank the Minister for taking time out to see me prior to this debate? Engaging beforehand is a refreshing departure from how many of her Government colleagues work, so I thank her for the way in which she goes about her business. We will see, of course, whether she can agree to the change that is so desperately needed.

Let us get something straight from the beginning. Energy policy is 100% reserved to the UK Government. I will come later to the actions of the Scottish Government on the cost of living and our attempts to mitigate UK Government harms, but let us be clear that the issue we are discussing today lies squarely at the feet of the UK Government and the regulator Ofgem.

The energy market in its current form is completely broken. Along with colleagues, I have called for urgent changes to the whole system and urgent support for those in need, the reintroduction of a £400 energy bill rebate, for regressive standing charges to be abolished, and for the Chancellor to honour his pledge to open a consultation on the social tariff. Today’s debate, however, is about a specific action for the people of the highlands and islands, who are uniquely disadvantaged, and a workable solution for them. I will underline how the people of the highlands and islands have been neglected by both the regulator and the UK Government, how energy injustice has not levelled up but rapidly increased, why now is the time to fix it and, of course, how the Government can do that.

Part of the problem in preparing for a debate such as this is that the message is so straightforward and the injustice so clear and unarguable that it feels almost surreal. How has the problem been allowed to get to where it is and why has it not already been fixed? Of course, the highlands and islands are largely rural, almost entirely off the gas grid and so rely on higher electricity use, fuel oil and liquefied petroleum gas. It is much more expensive than for the majority across the nations of the UK who are on the gas grid. We have a colder climate, sometimes spectacularly so. As a result, we use more units of electricity and pay more than the UK average, with higher electricity bills just to get through the days. More of our people—around a third—are in fuel poverty and a fifth are in extreme fuel poverty, by far the highest across the nations of the UK. We might think that those facts alone would have spurred any Government with a spare ounce of conscience to look at meaningful interventions to help, but that has not happened.

Fuel poverty is a major driver of actual poverty. When the time comes when you cannot switch the heating on—a lived experience for many—other problems click in. Some people are already barely eating due to the punishing cost of living and simply try to endure the cold. Some go to more extreme measures, as we know, such as self-disconnection. That has depressingly obvious consequences.

As the medical journal The Lancet pointed out, when people can no longer heat their homes their mental health deteriorates significantly. The odds of their reporting depression, anxiety or hypertension increases by around 50%, as does the risk of suicide. Children in cold homes are at increased risk of asthma attacks and respiratory infections. As the temperature drops and the circulation of viruses increases, immunity is impaired. Absolutely avoidable public health dereliction continues while that remains unaddressed. We might think that any Government with the power to do so and any shred of decency would act in those circumstances, but instead things have been allowed to get worse.

We have long been arguing these points, but the kick in the teeth for the people in the highlands and islands is the standing charge for electricity, which is a pernicious beast for those suffering fuel poverty because it applies every single day, warm or cold, whether the heating is on or off. The consumer cannot control it; there are no measures they can take. What have the UK Government allowed Ofgem, the regulator, to do across the highlands and islands? People were already paying 40% more for their standing charge than those living here in London, yet the Government have let Ofgem increase it to 50% more. According to Yourweather.co.uk, the mean daily temperature in London—the warmest city in the UK—is 16°C; in Skye, it is 9°C. How can that be fair? Surely any Government with the power to do something about that and with a shred of decency would do so.

If that were not unfair enough, think about this: the families across the highlands and islands who suffer these unfair charges, which lead to fuel poverty and even extreme fuel poverty—those who are terrified of the envelope containing the bill when they turn their heating on and try to feed and warm their kids—are sitting in the middle of energy wealth that is much, much greater than their needs, and they get none of it paid back to them. They can see the infrastructure all around them. Renewable energy generates at least six times more than the electricity they use—the figure is higher than that, but let us go on the low side. The rest is exported to the grid, only to be sold back to them at the cost I have described. It is immoral.

The UK Government have the power to do something about it and must make amends for that grossly unfair situation. The Minister will say that her hands are tied because Ofgem makes these decisions, and Ofgem will say that its hands are tied because it needs instruction from the Government. I do not believe anybody suffering those conditions in the highlands and islands will take that argument from the Minister when we hear it. Perhaps she will adjust her notes before we get to that point—we will see.

The Scottish Government have been doing what they can to mitigate Westminster policies that increase poverty in the highlands and islands, although they should not have to. They have been paying the bedroom tax, for example, so our people do not have to. They have supported children through the Scottish child payment and put money in place to fund a council tax freeze, but they do not have power over energy: the UK Government do. That is the same UK Government who introduced the two-child limit and the rape clause, cut universal credit by £20 a week, and reduced funding for public services in the last autumn statement by £19 billion, severely restricting devolved government and local authority support.

I started by praising the Minister for her engagement with me prior to the debate, and she told me that she would like some figures, so I have some for her. Northern Scotland, as it is called under Ofgem, pays more for both standing charges and unit rates than the UK average —60.1p and 24.5p respectively. Currently, northern Scotland’s standing charge cost is 59.38p, roughly 50% higher than London. Energy usage in the highlands and islands averages over 4,400 kW per household, compared with about 3,000 kW in London. Some 62% of the properties in the highlands and islands are not connected to the gas grid, resulting in higher heating costs per household. On current rates, April to June 2024, the daily standing charge direct debit single rate for electricity is 61.1p in northern Scotland and 40.79p in London and the daily standing charge’s direct debit multi-rate is 62.25p for northern Scotland and 40.75p for London.

The 2021 rates of fuel poverty are thought to be underestimates because of covid restrictions, and the Commons Library uses 2017 to 2019 aggregates. The highlands and islands region has the highest levels of fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty in the UK. It is 39.8%—some 5,000 households—in Na h-Eileanan Siar, with 24.3% in extreme poverty; 32.9% of households in the highlands, with 21.5% in extreme poverty; 32.2% of households in Argyll and Bute, with 19% in extreme poverty; 31.6% of households in Moray, with 18.5% in extreme poverty; 30.9% of households in the Shetland Islands, with 22% in extreme poverty; and 30.5% of households in the Orkney Islands, with 22% in extreme poverty.

I expect the Minister will point to the hydro benefit replacement scheme as helping to balance the situation. Knowing that she will have done her research, I think she knows that that is a poor substitute, and an excuse for years of inactivity. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy report of 2022 notes that the HBRS

“does not (and never could) provide an efficient or effective way of providing targeted support to specific groups of vulnerable consumers within a region.”

However, in its own unique and inadequate way, it points to a solution, along with another precedent that has come up recently and could be adopted, which I will come to shortly.

The HBRS was established in the 1940s to compensate for the small hydro dams, and it took current form in 2005 under the Energy Act 2004. As it stands, it falls woefully short of the meaningful intervention required. In 2022, the Highlands and Islands Housing Associations affordable warmth group highlighted the £60 per annum discount is only “adding insult to injury” to regional energy costs.

When someone is paying much more than the rest, that does not really make a difference, in an area that is producing much more electricity that it could ever use. In 2022, Scotland was already producing the equivalent of 113% of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption from renewable technologies, a 26 percentage point increase on 2021. As I said earlier, I am certain that figure is on the low side.

The highlands produces enough energy through electricity to power six times more homes than there are in the highlands. The highlands produced a total of 7.2 million MW of energy, with 4 million MW from onshore wind and almost 3 million MW from hydro power. Argyll and Bute produced 1.3 million MW of energy from renewable sources. The Highland Council area comprises only 0.36% of the UK total population, yet the area produces 5.5% of the 49.7 GW UK-installed capacity for renewables, 43% of the UK’s installed hydro capacity and 13% of the UK’s installed onshore wind capacity.

With those regions playing a crucial role in providing the rest of the UK with cheap energy, it is surely only right that they should start to get some benefit from cheaper energy prices, yet they are not. The HBRS could and should be converted into something more meaningful. In his autumn statement, the Chancellor offered the solution. Why not introduce a meaningful rate based on compensating the highlands and islands contributions? He said he would introduce a rebate of up to £1,000 a year for up to 10 years for people living next to planned new energy generation infrastructure. That is very laudable. If it works for those living next to new generation equipment, how about those living among existing generation equipment?

That rebate would redistribute the wealth being generated in the highlands and islands among the communities, enabling them to reap benefits from what is produced there. That would offer several benefits, such as reduced energy costs for those facing higher than average per unit costs, alleviating the financial pressure that that places on households. It would empower communities by allowing them to reap the benefits of what their communities produce, and it would boost economic growth by alleviating the pressure on households from energy costs.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

The hon. Member is making an excellent speech, which strikes a chord with anyone who knows and works for the highlands. There is another benefit, I think. During the pandemic, the recovery of anyone suffering from covid was assisted by being kept warm. I believe that a warm household goes a very long way towards disease prevention. It is arguable that one of the benefits of getting this right would be the health of people in the highlands, which would lead to fewer days off work and greater economic productivity, and that can only be good for the economy of the highlands.

[Drew Hendry]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He will not be surprised to hear that I agree; indeed, I mentioned earlier in my speech that The Lancet has reported on the health outcomes of having a house that is too cold. One of them is the fact that immunity drops, and people’s resistance to picking up infections actually decreases due to those circumstances. There are particular effects on children and their ability to develop. The hon. Member makes the good point that this is an issue of not only lost work days, but lost ability for people to operate in their communities and have a general sense of wellbeing. He was absolutely right to highlight that point, and I thank him for that.

The hon. Member talked about economic growth. As I said, a highland energy rebate would boost economic growth by alleviating the pressure on households from energy costs, allowing them some money to try to get through the cost of living and to spend elsewhere. Let us see some justice for, and amends made to, those suffering in fuel poverty who are generating and exporting power for others across the nations of the UK. The highlands and islands produce almost 6% of UK energy while having about 0.4% of the population. Why do we not benefit further from that? We pay higher than average bills, face higher costs due to the climate and have higher rates of fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty, yet we live in an energy-rich region.

Even the UK Government’s own report, the BEIS review scheme of 2022, describes how the hydro benefit replacement scheme does not provide efficient or effective support for vulnerable consumers in specific regions. The scheme introduced by the Chancellor that will give rebates to those living near new energy infrastructure up to the tune of £10,000 over 10 years is laudable, so why can a scheme not be put in place for those living near to existing renewable infrastructure? It is time for the people of the highlands and islands to be treated fairly, for fuel poverty to end, and for the contribution of those people to the billions that is generated for the Treasury on their doorsteps to be recognised. It is time for a highland energy rebate.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Carmichael]

The Shetland Islands Council has promoted the idea of a Shetland tariff for years. I understand what the hon. Member says about seeing the energy development; that is something we have lived with in Shetland and Orkney for the past 50 years, as we have kept the rest of the country supplied with hydrocarbons. We have had some significant benefit, but nothing compared with what we could have had. Yes, there are opportunities here. The real fight comes with the energy unit cost, but in the meantime, if we can do something with standing charges, we should.

I am a wee bit disappointed that we do not have a better turnout for this debate. It seems to me that the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey has drawn our attention to something that is really severe for the highlands and islands, but not only there. The hon. Gentleman referred to the disparities between a standing charge in London and in the highlands and islands, or in northern Scotland, which is probably the same thing. For somebody in London paying their bill by direct debit, the current standing charge is 38.5p per day, against the northern Scotland figure, which is 59.38p per day, and the southern Scotland figure, which is 62.08p per day. That is utterly random. I am sure that very clever and complicated sums were done to get those figures, but they have produced what we in the highlands and islands, and elsewhere in Scotland, would probably call mince. If ever there was an illustration that the regulation of the energy market has gone fundamentally wrong and requires root-and-branch reform, that is surely it. In north Wales and Mersey, the rate per day is 62.21p, which is even higher than in the highlands and islands and southern Scotland. People in north Wales and Mersey pay 29.57p per unit, compared with 28.48p in the north of Scotland and 28.16p in southern Scotland.

When we drill down into the figures and the regulation of the market, the other injustice is the rate charged to people on prepayment meters, who by definition are under the greatest financial pressure in relation to energy. The rate charged in the highlands and islands is 62.3p per day in standing charges and 27.19p per kilowatt-hour. If people in the north of Scotland pay by direct debit— I do, and I suspect everybody else in the room does—they pay 59.38p per day, whereas somebody who has to rely on a prepayment meter pays 66.23p per day. In what universe is that a sensible and fair system?

[Jamie Stone]

My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. He talks about an injustice. When the national health service was set up, people who lived in Lerwick, Tain, Paisley or Bristol had the same right to see a doctor and to get an antibiotic or treatment to make them well; the situation that he describes flies in the face of the notion of fairness, which is important to our democracy.

[Mr Carmichael]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Like the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, my hon. Friend touched earlier on the health aspects of energy costs, which not only impact the family budget for heating the house but have a much wider application. As the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey said, they impact mental health, and have serious impacts on those who are elderly and so more vulnerable to the cold and on those who have physical health conditions. For those people, the choice between heating and eating actually becomes less difficult, but only in a bad way: they have no choice. Their medical condition means that they have to give priority to heating.

The fact that we are now so far from the idea of a universal, standard price for energy across the whole country shows just how badly wrong the regulation of the market has gone. As the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey said, responsibility lies at Ofgem’s door. I wish we could see more proactivity from Ofgem, which had to be taken kicking and screaming to get to the point of consulting on a social tariff. If the Minister could instruct it to look at the issue and achieve meaningful change, she would be doing some genuinely good work.

In conclusion, I congratulate the hon. Member on focusing our attention on the question of standing charges. The situation is bad for the highlands and islands, and it seems even worse for other parts of the country, although they might not be as heavily dependent on heat in the winter as we are.

Of course, I could not sit down without making brief reference to the fact that, for many in our constituencies, the real cost of heating their houses comes from the cost of using heating oil, as that is the only way that they can. There are no standing charges for that, and it is much more difficult to get money into the pockets of people who rely on it. That is baked into the system, and it will not be fixed easily.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ian Blackford]

My hon. Friend makes an important and fair point. In my constituency and home island of the Isle of Skye, a number of planning applications are coming forward. Of course, there is always a range of views on these things across all our communities, but if I look back over the past few years and, indeed, at the debate taking place today, on balance, people are generally favourably disposed towards those developments. They understand the importance of getting to net zero. My goodness, the communities that we all represent feel the impact of climate change—we can see it. There has to be that fairness, and the fact is that so many people are living in fuel poverty—the 47% of households that I referred to that live in rural areas. I see it when I am out and about.

If we think about us here in London going about our jobs, many people are dressed, as we are, in their working garb—suits or whatever it might be—but when we see people in remote rural areas, they often work outdoors, in the fishing industry or as crofters or farmers. It is largely an outdoor life, so people wear layers of clothes. They need those layers because of the climate they face outside, but—here is the “but”—in too many cases, they are still wearing those layers when they come back inside because they simply cannot afford the heating. That is the reality. When we give our consent—because it is about our consent—to that increase in energy production, where is the benefit?

I mentioned the increase in energy production that we will see in Scotland between now and 2050. We welcome it, but how can we have our people living in fuel poverty? How can we accept that? Where is the fairness? We are being charged higher transmission costs to transmit that energy into the grid, and being charged again to get the energy back. That energy is produced in our communities. Can somebody explain where the fairness is in that? How does that look for those living in these communities?

[Jamie Stone]

None of us should be under any illusion; the fact that so few of us are here today does not reflect or minimise the nature of the problem. It is fundamentally unfair that many other aspects of government would command a higher attendance of Members. There is something basically wrong here. Part of the UK is being ripped off when it comes to energy.

When the Chancellor and his civil servants were drawing up the Budget, I am sure they took into account what was fair, what was right and what was not, but has this issue been factored in? We await today with interest. It is apposite that the debate is precisely at this hour, because shortly we will know whether the Chancellor cares about a fundamental unfairness or not.

[Ian Blackford]

I thank the hon. Member, my constituency neighbour, for that contribution. I agree with the sentiment; it is a pity that more Members are not present. Having said that, the Members who represent the four most northerly constituencies are here. We four represent the communities most exposed to this issue. We have four of the most rural constituencies in the whole United Kingdom, although we could add Na h-Eileanan an Iar or Argyll and Bute to that. It is our constituents who are feeling this. It is our constituents in the main who are facing fuel poverty to such an extent. I wonder whether those in government actually recognise what it is like to live in those communities and face the kind of pressures that we face.

I have talked about the community benefiting from transmission, but it is important that the community should benefit from production as well. Again, those on the production side are encouraged to engage in community benefit, but we simply cannot leave it to the developers to determine community benefit at a whim. It must be mandatory. It must be in legislation. The highlands and islands produce enough energy to power nearly six times as many homes as there are in the highlands, even before the scale investment that we are talking about. Of course, being a windy and wet region makes us an attractive option for developers, but there must be payback for communities.

In the highlands and islands, we are exposed to the effects of climate change. In general, it is an outdoor lifestyle. Crofting and fishing still provide the backbone to economic activity, and those exposed to such activities are exposed to what climate change is bringing. Anyone who has engaged in crofting can say how difficult it is over the winter months with, from personal experience, crofters increasingly sinking into the mud because it is just so relentlessly wet. That is the effect that climate change is having on us.

It is therefore unsurprising that, in general, those who live in such places as Ross, Skye and Lochaber support green energy initiatives, but there is an increasing concern that rising production produces little direct benefit for communities for that right to produce. That is why we have a broken UK energy market. Let us not forget that the increase in pricing over the last two years is largely because electricity prices are tied to gas prices. However, we have talked about the fact that in the main, people who live in the highlands and islands are off grid. We do not consume gas as part of our energy mix, yet highlanders are paying the price for others’ dependence on gas.

It is simply unfair that Scotland, which produces enough affordable renewable energy for all domestic consumption, must pay higher prices because other parts of the United Kingdom are more reliant on more expensive gas. In energy-rich Scotland, consumers are in fuel poverty because of the broken UK energy market. Those in Scotland are paying a price for being in the United Kingdom—so much for the broad shoulders of the United kingdom; so much for the “Union dividend”. There is no Union dividend; it is a financial penalty, and we in Scotland all pay the price. To put that in a wider context, the value in today’s prices of tax from North sea oil to the UK Exchequer is more than £400 billion. Our legacy from the bounty of North sea oil has been squandered, and we have now been locked out of the benefit of Scotland’s green energy production.

The phrase “Scotland has the energy, but we don’t have the power” is often used. It is an absolute scandal that we produce the energy and yet so many of our people are living in fuel poverty. That is the price of Westminster’s control of Scotland’s natural resources: highlanders and islanders suffering fuel poverty from a broken energy market. The blame lies fairly and squarely in this place, and its inability to act in the appropriate manner to defend the interests of our constituents.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Tuesday 27th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. As he will know, I cannot comment on a specific proposal. We need to rewire this country in order to have homegrown energy. That means hosting new infrastructure, with the presumption that it is above ground and done in a way that minimises negative impacts on food security, which I am confident that any proposals that come forward will do. Let us make no mistake: we must rewire this country. We must power the UK more from this country, clean up our energy and reduce our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

Every single winter, the village of Altnaharra in Sutherland is the coldest community in the whole of the United Kingdom. Some parts of the United Kingdom are colder than others—that is geography. May I ask that this fact be taken into consideration when the Government look at schemes to help people with the cost of paying their electricity bills?

[Amanda Solloway]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. As he will know, the Government delivered over £40 billion in support last winter. We expect the warm home discount to support around 3 million households this winter, with the final figures to be published later. Since 2011, the warm home discount has delivered over £3.5 billion in support for eligible low-income households.

COP28

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Thursday 14th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Graham Stuart]

The hon. Lady is right to highlight children, who will inherit the planet we leave behind. In the meantime, they are peculiarly vulnerable to the negative impacts we are already seeing this year, let alone those we will see if we get to 1.5°C or beyond. She is right to highlight that. I cannot comment on the specific question she raises, but I will make sure that it is heard on the Treasury Bench and let her know as and when a decision is made by the Government. She is right to say that, just as we must ensure that the voices of the small Pacific island states and others are heard, because they are so much on the frontline, the voice of youth must be heard. I was pleased to meet youth representatives at COP28. We must ensure that we look to the people who will inherit the policies that we of a slightly greater age make in this Chamber.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

I dare say that it might seem slightly implausible to people here in the Chamber when I say that I worked in oil fabrication, but I did, and the yard where I worked built some of the mightiest structures in the North sea today. What the Minister says about transitioning and redeploying skills is music to my ears and those of my electorate. I long to see the day when offshore wind structures are fabricated in the Nigg yard. However, there is a problem, which is that since the auction, some costs have risen by almost 40%. I suspect that the incentives will not be sufficient to get the industry to where we want it to be to make these things happen. Does the Minister recognise that, and does he have any thoughts as to how it might be addressed?

[Graham Stuart]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question, which, as ever, is well informed and extremely reasonable. He is absolutely right. I visited the port of Nigg. I was interested to see nascent floating offshore wind work, fixed-bed offshore wind work and oil and gas work, and I wandered into a hall where they were making a large and sophisticated piece for Hinkley Point C, extraordinarily. That was all at Nigg.

The hon. Gentleman gets to the point about financing and whether the auction, which has been brilliant at lowering prices, has in fact helped drive too much of the industry out of this country. Behind the day job of transforming our generation, my passion will be to see how, without following some others with WTO-breaching local clauses, we can nudge and support more industry here. That is why we are bringing in sustainable industry rewards—non-price factors, in the jargon. We expect those to come in from allocation round 7 onwards as we work to make sure that we look after consumers first, while not missing any opportunity to utilise, maintain and grow jobs here. On offshore wind alone, our expectation—this is what the industry says—is that we will go from around 30,000 jobs in the industry today to more than 100,000 in the next six years. One of our biggest challenges is finding those people, training them and making sure we are ready to deliver them, as much as it is having more done here.

Energy Bill [Lords]

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 5th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bowie]

I am delighted to confirm that that will play an important part. Indeed, we have ringfenced £10 million to support marine energy in the country. We believe it has a huge role to play in delivering our energy baseload. Indeed, the innovations being made in that technology are incredibly exciting and will play a huge part in our energy baseload moving forward.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

rose—

[Andrew Bowie]

It is always a delight to give way to the hon. Gentleman.

[Jamie Stone]

The Minister is incredibly well-mannered. The irony is that we generate an enormous amount of power from onshore wind in the highlands, yet we face the highest levels of fuel poverty. New clause 1, tabled in my name, talks about increasing the community benefit in some way and widening the number of communities who could benefit. I am aware that the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns) has tabled a similar amendment, and I would like to voice my support and that of the Liberal Democrats for it.

[Andrew Bowie]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his constructive intervention. The Government recently launched a consultation on community benefits, because we do understand that those communities being asked to host pieces of critical national infrastructure should be recompensed for that, and that the community benefits that the individuals, communities and groups in those areas receive should be enough to recompense them for what they are doing in the national interest.

Heating Rural Homes

Jamie Stone Excerpts

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Commons Chamber

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

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Sir Bill Wiggin) for his impassioned speech. We have heard a lot from the rural champions who are here, so it is a great pleasure to be here. I point out that the issue is not in my portfolio; however, I will take back to the Department any question that I cannot answer, and will of course respond in due course to anybody I do not manage to respond to directly tonight. This is an incredibly important debate on heating rural homes. I thank my hon. Friend for our conversation earlier, in which he explained the problem.

Decarbonising off-gas-grid properties that use fossil fuel heating is a key priority for us, as they are some of our biggest polluters. The use of oil and other high-carbon fossil fuels to heat our properties also reinforces our dependence on foreign sources of energy. The Government recognise that off-gas-grid households have been particularly exposed to high and volatile energy bills, due to the impact of rising global fossil fuel prices following Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. That is why we have taken decisive action to support rural households facing higher heating costs through the winter. The energy price guarantee is currently protecting customers from increasing energy costs by limiting the amount that suppliers can charge per unit of gas or electricity used. In addition, the alternative fuel payment scheme delivered £200 to households that use alternative fuels such as heating fuel, petroleum gas or biomass, helping around 2 million off-grid households across the United Kingdom.

Going forward, the Government intend to move away from universal energy bill support and towards better targeted support for those most in need. Therefore, to keep prices down for ordinary households in the long term, we need to make sure that we are relying on sources of energy that are affordable, clean and—above all—secure.

[Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)]

The Minister is very gracious in giving way, and she is making a most interesting speech. Could I recommend to her something that would be helpful, namely whisky? In the rural community of Wick, in Caithness in my constituency, we have a distillery called Old Pulteney—it is an excellent whisky, but that is not the subject of this intervention. Old Pulteney helps to heat at least 200 houses in Wick, as well as Caithness General Hospital. It is an imaginative solution, so I suggest that the Minister looks at how that is done, takes herself on a tour of other distilleries that are not doing the same, and samples their wares for inner warmth, but also sees how they can contribute to outer warmth.

[Amanda Solloway]

I confess to being a whisky drinker, so I feel a visit coming on, but that might not be allowed. Of course, I will look into that.

Transitioning rural, off-grid properties to low-carbon heat will help to move us off imported oil and build energy independence; help protect consumers from high and volatile energy bills; and keep us on track for net zero. However, I want to take this opportunity to reassure my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire that we recognise the challenges involved, which he has described so eloquently. Decarbonising rural, off-grid properties in a way that is fair, affordable and smooth for consumers will require a range of different technologies and policy approaches.

While we expect that most off-grid properties will ultimately switch to heat pumps, affordability is a key challenge that we need to address, particularly while the cost of installing a heat pump remains higher than the cost of replacing an oil system. That is why we are taking a range of steps to grow the heat pump market to 600,000 installations a year by 2028, and to make installing a heat pump a more attractive and affordable choice for heating a home. I acknowledge the challenge of building the skills that installers will need; I will take that point away and—with your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker—come back at a later date in a different manner. The steps we are taking include providing support through schemes such as the boiler upgrade scheme and home upgrade grant. We want to make sure that people make green choices.

As we take action, we want to ensure that the economic benefits of the transition to net zero are retained in the United Kingdom, which will create new, highly skilled jobs in the low-carbon economy. That is why we are investing £30 million in the heat pump investment accelerator, which will bring forward investment in heat pump supply chains and aim to ensure that at least 300,000 heat pumps are manufactured annually here in the UK by the end of the decade. I also take this opportunity to reassure my hon. Friend that no one will be required to install an unsuitable technology in their home or business. Heat pumps will not work everywhere—some off-grid properties are simply too poorly insulated or have certain characteristics that would make installing the technology challenging. We are therefore looking closely at the potential role of low-carbon heating solutions, such as high-temperature heat pumps, hybrid heat pumps, solid biomass or renewable liquid fuels. They could play a part in the low-carbon heating mix, particularly where heat pumps cannot be used. However, sustainable biomass is a limited resource, and we need to take care to prioritise its use in sectors that offer the greatest opportunity to reduce emissions and where there are the fewest alternative options to decarbonise.

There were some comments on the EPC, which is under a different Department, but I will take that away. However, I thoroughly believe we should always be looking at ways to improve methodology, and I am happy to have further conversations on that, if that is helpful. The forthcoming biomass strategy will review the amount of sustainable biomass available in the United Kingdom and consider how the resource could be best utilised across the economy to help achieve the Government’s net zero and wider environmental commitments. My hon. Friend also mentioned the consultation on the boiler ban. The Government have a commitment to transition to clean heat for the future. My hon. Friend asked me about a date, which I am unable to give at this stage, but I will look into that consultation and get back to him as soon as I can.

We will continue to work with industry stakeholders to build further evidence that will allow us to evaluate what roles these fuels may play in heat, especially where heat pumps cannot be used. Earlier this week, I visited Certas Energy, the UK’s largest distributor of heating oil. I thank it for supplying off-grid customers this winter. I also learned about its plans to transition to low-carbon renewable liquid fuels, and I will take away lots of points from that visit. Through the support we are providing, I assure my hon. Friend that we are acting and will continue to act to ensure that the transition to clean heat is smooth, fair and affordable for rural off-grid households and businesses.