Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Pritchard Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

I love Cumbernauld, Mr Speaker. My hon. Friend raises the important opportunities in heat pump technology. The growth in heat pumps that we are seeing is not just about a better deal for consumers, but about the manufacturing that we can see. My hon. Friend has given a great example of that.

[Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con)]

If the Secretary of State loves Shropshire, and I am sure he does, I hope he will not bulldoze over all our green belt—but that is another story for another day.

The Secretary of State talks about green jobs. I am sure he does not want our fire services to be deployed more and more, but with solar energy feeding into battery energy storage systems, there is real concern at Shropshire fire service and across the country that there will be fires that are very difficult for our fire services to control. Does the Secretary of State agree that our fire services should be a statutory consultee on future planning applications for battery storage?

[Ed Miliband]

This is an important issue that we need to take seriously. At the moment, it comes under the health and safety regime, but we are consulting on the best arrangements to ensure that we have the highest standards of safety. There are high safety standards in place, but as we see the growth of batteries, we will endeavour to ensure that those standards are maintained.