Community Energy Schemes Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Jeremy Wright
Main Page: Jeremy Wright (Conservative - Kenilworth and Southam)Department Debates - View all Jeremy Wright's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Community Energy Schemes
Jeremy Wright Excerpts(3 years ago)
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Wera Hobhouse
If I were the Government, I would happily take up that offer. It is about the surplus energy that can go back into the community. If we look at the crisis in the energy market and the fact that people will probably face higher prices, anyway, the Government’s argument that there might be unintended consequences, particularly around price, has proven not to be the case. It will ultimately become cheaper if we go along the lines of community energy.
Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam) (Con)
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and for securing this debate. In dealing with the objections to the course of action that she is setting out, she will know that the Government maintain that the right to local energy already exists. Does she agree that the right way to look at that is the way I look at my right to buy a Ferrari, which already exists, but my financial obstacles to doing so are considerable, and that that is true in the case of community energy too?
Wera Hobhouse
I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for that analysis. Do we all want Ferraris? Who knows? But we probably all want community energy. The problem is indeed the cost of entry for small local suppliers, and that is what the Government need to look at. As we have already heard from the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), it does not work on the ground. When the right exists, fine, but what is the practice? We need to look at what we can do to change the practice and at what is affordable for the small companies that want to enter the market.