Clean Growth Fund Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Lord Lilley
Main Page: Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Lilley's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(4 years ago)
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Lord Lilley (Con)
My Lords, I draw attention to my interests in the register. I sincerely hope that the fund will succeed in investing in companies that grow without subsidy, but does my noble friend recall that, in the Government’s Cost of Energy Review, Professor Dieter Helm concluded that the best part of £100 billion spent so far on renewables has been wasted because, as he warned, Governments are not very good at picking winners, but
“losers are very good at picking governments”?
Lord Callanan (Con)
That is indeed a good quote and I agree to a certain extent with my noble friend, but this is a commercial investment, run by a commercial fund manager. My noble friend will be pleased to know that the Government are playing no role in the selection of the investments. There are private sector investors alongside us and the fund manager is running the fund on a commercial basis.