Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to restart the Government’s consultation into the use of a Regulated Asset Base model for renewables and low carbon energy generating assets.

The Government consulted on the use of a Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear in summer 2019, concluding that RAB was a credible model for large-scale nuclear projects. The Government introduced the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill on 26 October to establish the RAB model to fund new nuclear projects at a low cost of capital, saving consumers money. As set out in our response to the consultation, the Government will continue to consider whether a RAB model could be applied to other low carbon technologies, including transport and storage infrastructure for carbon dioxide (outlined in the Government’s response to the carbon capture, usage and storage business models consultation).