Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 24th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 1.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

With this it will be convenient to take Lords amendments 2 to 33, 63 to 85, 87 to 131, 133 to 135 and 142 to 193.

Wind Farm Subsidies (Abolition) Bill

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Friday 6th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I am the one who has to worry about these issues. In fairness, the Minister has been tempted to deal with nuclear, offshore and other subjects.

[Matthew Hancock]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough would do a remarkable job in your seat, but I am grateful for your guidance.

I want to mention planning, not least because it was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough and because it forms part of the wider arguments about whether we should have subsidies for onshore wind in the future and whether we should end subsidies for onshore wind in the way set out in the Bill or in a careful and measured way, as I have set out.

We have been very clear that wind farms must be well sited to receive planning permission and that communities must be taken into account before planning decisions are made. The reforms we have made to the planning system bear that out. We have also made it compulsory for developers to have pre-application consultations with local communities on onshore wind developments of more than two turbines or when the hub height of the turbine exceeds 15 metres. That means that developers need to engage seriously with communities even before submitting a planning application.

We have also published new planning practice guidance on renewable energy, updated last year, which will help deliver the balance required by the national planning policy framework. That will make it clear that the need for renewable energy does not automatically override environmental protections and the planning concerns of local communities. This is what I was referring to earlier when I said that saving the global environment must not be done in a way that damages our local environment. The new planning guidance has also been published to assist local councils and planning inspectors in their consideration of local plans and individual planning applications.

I also want to touch on the planning recoveries issue mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough and by the hon. Member for Sunderland Central. Our new planning practice guidance and the requirement for developers to consult local communities before they submit a planning application are crucial steps in improving the quality of proposed onshore wind developments and ensuring that local communities are listened to whether there is a subsidy in place or not, as set out in the Bill. Of course, however, some communities remain concerned when a local planning decision is challenged on appeal.

It is important that local communities continue to have confidence in the appeals process and that the environmental balance expected by the national planning policy framework is reflected in decisions on renewable energy deployment. That is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced a temporary change to the appeals recovery criteria for a period of six months. In doing so, he explained that he wanted to give particular scrutiny to planning appeals involving renewable energy developments so that he could consider the extent to which the new practice guidance met our intentions. Since that planning guidance was issued, more appeals have been dismissed than approved for more significant turbines, reversing the trend before the guidance was issued, when more approvals were approved than dismissed.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has found that the guidance is helping to ensure that decisions reflect the environmental balance we need to see, as set out in the framework, but he also recognises that the guidance is relatively new and that some development proposals might not yet have taken on board its intent. That is why after careful consideration he decided on 9 April 2014 to extend the temporary change to the appeals recovery criteria and continue to consider for recovery appeals for renewable energy developments for a further 12 months. We will continue to monitor the impact of recoveries on onshore wind and on investor confidence more broadly. There you have it, Mr Deputy Speaker.

We have been very clear about the fact that onshore wind plays a role in our energy mix. It produced 7% of the UK’s electricity in the last quarter, but we need to ensure that we tackle the challenge of climate change in the way that incurs the lowest possible cost. In the next Parliament, we will in time remove the subsidies from onshore wind, but I hope that that will happen as part of a wider move to drive down the cost of subsidies, especially as the cost of renewables falls and as some renewables, such as solar, are financed reasonably cost-effectively and reach parity with fossil fuels. That will significantly change the debate about renewables because we will reach a point where going green reduces costs, rather than adding subsidies to consumers’ bills.

We should stick to that clear direction and vision, and we should do so in a way that allows the House to abide by its commitments. I take on board the point about the Bill’s intention, which is consistent with the Prime Minister’s words, even if the technicalities are slightly different.

I have not dwelt at all on the utter chaos and catastrophe of the Opposition’s policies, the inconsistencies of which were well drawn out in the debate. I am not going to go there, and I will not talk about how no one can have a freeze that is not a freeze and how the freeze policy was launched by someone standing next to an ice block, so to describe it later as a cap seems inconsistent with the intention at the time.

It is a great pity that the Opposition have no credible policy to speak of, but I suppose that only shows why it is vital that we have a successful outcome to the general election, so that we can continue with the goals that we have set. I look forward to working further on the Bill’s details with my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough, but it is clear that the costs of subsidies for wind are falling. We are bringing them down through the power of the ingenuity of mankind and the price discovery of the market. We are clear that we will remove future subsidies for onshore wind, and we will be careful to ensure that local planning considerations and the beauty of the local environment are taken into account. Although I have considerable sympathy with the Bill, it is not the right way to go about the stated policy, and the Government will therefore resist it.

EU-US Trade and Investment Agreement

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Thursday 18th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

Of course.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. The Minister has now been speaking for 10 minutes, so I am sure that Bob Stewart can save himself for later.

[Matthew Hancock]

Let me just run through as quickly as I can some of the other points that were made.

The objective in the negotiations, including in TTIP, will be to have commitments in health services that are broadly in line with existing international trade agreements, so I can reassure Members on that point. It is true that this is an ambitious project, but our goal is that it should be concluded within 18 to 24 months. The US interpretation is that it should be concluded on one tank of gas, and we wholeheartedly agree. The British Government will put in place whatever support is necessary for the Commission to help that happen. The benefits will come not only as a result of reducing tariffs, although they are relatively low, but from non-tariff barriers, mutual recognition of regulation and the treatment of intellectual property, which has been mentioned.

We are under no illusions that this will be easy, but we are well placed and have a strong political commitment. In the first negotiating round, which took place last week, good progress was made. A framework for the negotiations was agreed and an initial productive exchange of views on ambition and approach across each dossier was achieved. As the Prime Minister has said, it is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it to ensure that the benefits of free trade can increase and strengthen jobs and prosperity in this nation and around the world.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I call Mr John Healey. You have up to two minutes, but please be brief.

The Economy

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 6th December 2011 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

Youth unemployment in my constituency is falling because of a work experience programme that has now been rolled out across the country. I say that to preclude the shadow Chancellor’s rebuttal. He has just argued in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Richard Fuller) that private sector debt is a good thing. Will he have the balls to say that explicitly?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I am not quite sure we are going to allow “balls”. I am sure you can think of a better word, Mr Hancock.

[Matthew Hancock]

I withdraw it. Will the shadow Chancellor have the weight to state explicitly what he has just argued, which is that private sector debt is a good thing?

Banking Reform

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Monday 29th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

In my experience it is always better to be anything than a clunking fist.

I will end by saying this. We do not know what the future holds. We know that regulation is not perfect. It is therefore far better to have one person and an institution in charge of the regulatory structure who can exercise judgment to the best of their ability than it is to try to write a rulebook for a perfect system that we know we will never create. That is why I think that the Government have already put forward such a critical change to our financial architecture—a change that I hope will be accepted by the Opposition and which will form the basis of the good economic governance of our country for years to come.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I call Mr Morris. Are you going to be very brief?

Finance Bill

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I remind Members that we have to stick to the Bill. We are being dragged off in different directions, so please stick to the Bill. That is what we are debating.

[Matthew Hancock]

I am grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to the then Chancellor, who expressed his gratitude to the then Opposition Conservative party for the support it gave him during September 2008. That is often forgotten on the Labour Benches.

On the evidence, one of the central questions to which we return time and again in this debate is whether there is a contradiction between dealing with the deficit and getting growth. It is clear that the Labour Front-Bench team think that those two things are entirely in contradiction. However, I want to consider the evidence for whether that is true. We all know that, in the long term, tackling the deficit is unavoidable—occasionally that is even acknowledged by those on the Labour Front Bench. Any child born is born with £23,000 of debt, and under the former Government’s plans, interest payments would have amounted to £70 billion a year, which could otherwise have been spent on important public spending.

There is also a question, in the shorter term, of whether fiscal responsibility can lead to growth. I was interested in this, so I went to look at some of the evidence. There is a very good literature review by Alberto Alesina, who, having described the argument that there is only either fiscal consolidation or growth, wrote that

“the accumulated evidence paints a different picture… Many even sharp reductions of budget deficits have been accompanied and immediately followed by sustained growth… These are the adjustments which have occurred on the spending side and have been large, credible and decisive.”

If the shadow Minister thinks that the Budget was large, credible and decisive, I would be happy to hear from him.

Industry (Government Support)

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 16th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Hancock]

Given what the hon. Lady has just said, does she support the Government policy on RDAs, which is to allow local people to decide whether local economic partnerships should cover the region or a smaller area?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Hoyle)]

Order. Only one Member can be on their feet at any one time. Please allow the Member to finish before rising again.