Queen’s Speech

Lord Rowe-Beddoe Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Rowe-Beddoe]

My Lords, there is much in the gracious Speech on which I would wish to comment. However, I shall reserve myself to two topics from today’s box of liquorice all-sorts.

First, unlike the noble Lords, Lord Patten and Lord Myners, and maybe others, I warmly welcome the introduction of legislation to establish an independent adjudicator to ensure that supermarkets deal fairly and lawfully with suppliers. As your Lordships have been informed, the creation of such an adjudicator or ombudsman appeared in the 2010 general election manifestos of five parties—Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party. Many of your Lordships will have heard of instances of the purchasing power of some major food retailers having a most deleterious effect on both direct and indirect suppliers. We talk of farmers, food growers and food manufacturers. A fair deal is a laudable objective. It would also impact favourably on small grocery outlets, which are in great decline—not terminal, we hope—in many of our villages, small towns and even cities. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills informs us that five retailers now own some 75% of the UK’s £146 billion grocery market.

Many of your Lordships have witnessed, as the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, so aptly described, the ongoing destruction of village and town high streets as shops—certainly not just groceries—are put out of business, by both out-of-town supermarkets and their smaller in-town offspring. The price benefit to the consumer can be demonstrable, but if the supplier is protected the differential between the giant and the minnow outlet can be greatly reduced. I hope that the legislation will succeed in so doing.

I turn now to the energy Bill. The Energy and Climate Change Committee in another place will shortly receive it for pre-legislative scrutiny, with a view to reporting, I believe, before the summer Recess. The gracious Speech refers to delivering,

“secure, clean and affordable electricity”.

To my great dismay, I find no reference whatever in published documentation to the Severn barrage, the latest proposals for which demonstrate it to be the single most important low-carbon, renewable energy project in the whole of Europe. I crave your Lordships’ indulgence as I am moved, now for the fourth time in some six years, to say a little about the potential and benefits of this grand projet, as our Gallic neighbours would have it. In fact, the ground-breaking—or should I say water-breaking—barrage at La Rance is almost 50 years old and has been demonstrating for all its life the multiple benefits which have been accruing.

Today, just 101 years after the first reference to the potential of harnessing the power of the second largest daily rise and fall of tide in the world—it must never be said that Governments in this country move with undue haste—we are now aware of the latest proposal to turn these waters into an extraordinary, exciting, once-in-a-lifetime economic stimulus of such magnitude that I cannot understand the Government’s silence. It will produce 5% of the UK’s electricity requirement. During construction, it will create some 35,000 jobs in south Wales and in the south-west of England, with at least 10,000 permanent jobs in both regions on both sides of the estuary thereafter. There will be new rail and road links between the two regions. It will make a significant impact on the UK’s renewable energy targets. Latest designs and much-improved technology have largely met previous environmental concerns, and the La Rance results in fauna and biodiversity should well satisfy investment environmentalists.

A major difference between the current project and that of 1988 is that the proposers have stated that no government funding is required for the £30 billion-plus development. What is required is a clear message from the Government of support in principle, backing through the planning process and agreement to support and allocate appropriate parliamentary time for the passage of a private Bill. I feel absolutely sure that there is a financial appetite to realise this extraordinary project once the green lights are clearly lit in Westminster and Cardiff.