Energy Security

Jim Dickson Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak today, because it is vital that we make the transition to a new era of clean energy, driving our nation’s energy security forward, while rebuilding our public services and backing businesses to help them to grow. One of the most telling themes that emerge from what businesses in my constituency tell me at our regular roundtable meetings is the slowness of our country to create the infrastructure that its economy needs to succeed and underpin that transition to clean energy.

Of the 35 Bills mentioned in the King’s Speech, many will help to build and boost economic growth and strengthen our energy security, including the energy independence Bill and the electricity generator levy Bill, which seek to break the link between electricity and gas prices by moving older generators on to new fixed price contracts.

One of the Bills particularly welcome to my constituents is the highways (financing) Bill, which will for the first time set out how the Government can use the regulated asset base funding model used in sectors such as energy to build new large-scale road schemes. Crucially for me and the people of Dartford, the new lower Thames crossing will be the first project built on this model, using private capital to get this vital scheme built. We already have spades in the ground for the preparatory work on the crossing, and the new Bill should see this long-promised project finally delivered.

Dartford regularly experiences traffic gridlock when there are delays at the crossing, with children unable to get home from school, missed appointments and a stifling effect on local businesses, without mentioning the terrible air quality impact of 50,000 more vehicles a day using the crossing than it was originally designed to accommodate. With this, the Government are backing lower Thames crossing businesses to succeed, including those in the lower Thames crossing consortium, which I chair, so improving vital links with our ports and creating the conditions for growth in the future.

While I am on the topic of transport, it would be remiss of me not to mention Galley Hill Road in my constituency, the crucial route between Dartford and Gravesend, which collapsed and has been out of use for more than three years. I hope that, during this Session, Kent County Council will bid for and secure funding from the excellent new structures fund to get the road repaired and back open, so that local businesses such as MBC Despatch Racing can thrive again and Swanscombe can see an end to oversized lorries blocking its narrow roads. I welcome this King’s Speech and the Bills in it.