Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Charles Hendry]

My hon. Friend raises an extremely important issue, which is about both pricing and the time that it takes to secure deliveries. People calling today who reckon they will be short of oil over the coming weeks are being told that they will not receive a delivery for three or four weeks. We are monitoring that situation day by day and are extremely aware that, if there is further snow ahead of Christmas, it could become very serious indeed. I ask my hon. Friend to provide evidence on those price increases to the OFT, so that it can investigate them.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

19. What steps he plans to take to encourage the establishment of community-led low-carbon energy projects.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)]

Communities are where big society meets big energy, and the coalition intends to drive new community-led, low-carbon energy projects with strong financial incentives and better information and guidance. We have already acted to allow local authorities to sell the energy that they generate.

[Julian Smith]

Speaking to representatives of the excellent Settle hydro scheme in my constituency, I was struck by the amount of red tape that they have had to deal with to get the project off the ground, and the legal action that they have had to deal with from environmental groups. Will my hon. Friend make it as easy as possible for community energy projects to get off the ground in the coming 12 months?

[Gregory Barker]

The Settle micro-hydro scheme is exactly the sort of scheme that we want to see more of and encourage, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right: we need to make it easier for communities to take the initiative. That is why we are making it easier to get through the planning system and providing more financial incentives; and we have also launched a website to give people the information they need.