Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davey]

I can agree with the hon. Gentleman on the cost issue and that we need reform in the wholesale market because of the vertically integrated model, but I have to remind him and Opposition Members that that model for the big six was created under the previous Government, and we are tackling the issue—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I think that we have got the point.

[Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I remind the Secretary of State that it was the Conservative Government who privatised the electricity industry and, crucially, John Major who lifted the restriction and allowed that vertical integration. In an article in The Guardian on Monday, the Secretary of State wrote that the big six

“either supplied themselves or opted for over-the-counter deals, with no transparency”

and that vertical integration

“raised concerns about the wholesale market.”

Will he therefore answer the question that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) asked: does he agree with the policy of separating the generation and supply arms of those big businesses?

--- Later in debate ---

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

Certainly not; I do not recognise that figure at all. In fact, new research published today says that over 80% of people who have a green deal assessment are extremely satisfied with it, and only 5% of those who have an assessment—over 117,000 have been undertaken so far—do not go on to install some of the measures that it recommends. We are not only assessing but implementing, and Labour Members need to get over it.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

We need a little brevity to get through topical questions.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

T6. I was interested to see that the Prime Minister confirmed this week that people living near shale gas sites would enjoy an additional financial benefit. Ministers have confirmed the principle that that should be available to those who live near large-scale onshore wind and large-scale onshore solar array projects. Can the Minister confirm that people who live near such projects will definitely, and on every occasion, enjoy that benefit?