Oral Answers to Questions

Rehman Chishti Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Charles Hendry]

I understand from the discussions I have had with Ofgem that it believes that it already has the right powers to do this. We must understand that one of the reasons for the pressure on prices is that, as a result of the failure to secure investment under the previous Administration, we are looking at these companies to rebuild our energy infrastructure, with £200 billion of investment over the next 10 to 15 years. There is a real energy challenge in this crisis, and we have to encourage companies to put that investment in place if we are to be able to keep the lights on in future.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

19. What steps he is taking to enable local authorities to generate electricity and sell it to the National Grid.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry)]

Many local authorities are keen to take forward renewable energy projects. New regulations introduced on 18 August mean that local authorities can now sell electricity and can also benefit from renewable incentives such as feed-in tariffs and the renewables obligation. This new provision gives them the freedom to do that, enabling them to play their part in reducing emissions and meeting national renewable energy targets while saving money on their energy bills.

[Rehman Chishti]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the export tariff of 3p per kWh for households should be increased?

[Charles Hendry]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question, which does not directly relate to local authorities, but I can say that we are looking at these rates in the totality of the comprehensive spending review. We inherited schemes from the previous Administration that were extremely generous but which were not absolutely clear as to who was going to pay for them and how they were going to be paid for. We are absolutely committed to encouraging the roll-out of renewable electricity and renewable heat, but we must study very carefully exactly how these schemes can be paid for.