Energy Markets

Viscount Trenchard Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for that interesting image of what we do not want to happen, as opposed to what we do want to happen. Of course, what we want to happen is real, low-carbon energy projects, and there is an enormous amount of investment—£90 billion is the figure from 2024—going into the low-carbon green economy at the moment, running three times as fast as the general economy. However, that investment has to be in real things. An issue that Ofgem is dealing with at the moment is distinguishing between what you might call tyre-kicker projects that want to come online in order to fund a speculative project, and those that really are necessary for our energy renaissance as a low-carbon energy superpower. The only way to become an energy superpower is to have a super-powered energy economy of real projects with real connections that actually do the business in the way the noble Baroness suggested, rather than being diverted into things that may or may not happen and are largely speculative at the moment in their promotion and origin.

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

Can the Minister please tell the House why the Government have delayed publishing their response to last November’s report from the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce? Are they going to act and implement the review’s recommendations, and if so, when? It is hugely regrettable that we have thrown away our former leading position in nuclear power. Why have this Government stopped the AMR competition after phase B? Will there ever be a phase C? No update has been published on the government website since July 2023. We know that small high-temperature gas-cooled reactors could be playing a large part in meeting our electricity and industrial energy needs much sooner than currently envisaged. They also enable the production of hydrogen at scale, which is also a priority for our future energy mix.

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

I may have to write to the noble Viscount on aspects of that question that I am not fully sighted on. If he is referring to the Fingleton review, for example, then a great deal of work is being undertaken on that. Part of the issue with that review is how it translates itself into legislation for the future, and that is being fully considered. However, I assure the noble Viscount that that is not a particular cause of delays; it is a question of getting it right and making sure that what is in the review can properly inform the debate for the future.