Oral Answers to Questions

Pauline Latham Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

11. What steps she is taking to increase competition in the energy supply market.

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

15. What steps she is taking to increase competition in the energy supply market.

[Andrew Bingham (High Peak) (Con)]

19. What steps she is taking to increase competition in the energy supply market.

--- Later in debate ---

[Amber Rudd]

My hon. Friend raises the important issue of electricity transmission, and I intend to publish proposals later this year to enable the competitive tendering of certain onshore electricity transmission assets. Initial estimates show that these competitions could bring savings of at least £380 million in the first 10 years.

[Pauline Latham]

What assurances can my right hon. Friend give community trusts such as that spun off from Transition Belper, in my constituency, that they can continue being supported in their pre-accreditation bid towards the use of hydro power, which has been four years in production?

[Amber Rudd]

I know that my hon. Friend has taken a particular interest in community energy. I acknowledge that this change could make it more difficult for community energy projects to deploy, but we had to remove pre-accreditation as a matter of urgency, in order to safeguard spends under the scheme while we carry out the feed-in tariff review. But as part of the review, we are seeking views on whether the scheme should be focused towards specific groups or sectors, which might, for example, include households or communities.