Speeches by Young.

“I am talking about the capacity to deliver new connections.”

“It is about the increase, but how that relies on the distribution networks. It is not about not being able to do the projects quickly enough, but how that depends on the distribution networks.”

“Lots of the questions I had about decommissioning the gas network have probably already been covered, although I do not think you actually told us a point in time by which policy decisions need to be made on addressing the share of the costs of decommissioning the grid and all those issues. Are you able to put a date o…”

“Do you think there is a tipping point in the decommissioning process where the remainder of the gas network just will not be viable and will have to be removed, with the last users forced on to alternative heating systems?”

“Do you think that will then force a point where a policy decision will have to be made that users will have to move on to alternatives? At the moment, what you are describing is that you can do it by looking at how much they have switched and taking certain places off and not others, but there will surely come a point.”

“Post offices provide vital services in our rural communities, such as banking. In my Thornbury and Yate constituency, however, there are concerns about the future of the post office in Tytherington community shop, following the announcement that its partner post office in Cromhall will close at the end of February. Wil…”

“Absolutely—it is almost as though my hon. Friend has read the next section of my speech. I was about to say that marine renewables will also boost jobs and businesses throughout the supply chain, and will be part of the solution to the energy crisis that has hit people hard in recent years. Sadly, we are living in the …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) on securing this important debate and on his efforts to keep this issue on the agenda in Parliament. I want to reinforce the point he made about the Crown Estate Commission.…”

“Okay. Finally on battery storage, you have talked about discussions with the industry and so on; what impact do you think the support for battery storage systems will have on the cost of the mission to have clean power by the end of 2030?”

“Secretary of State, you have talked a lot about clean power and its importance for lowering energy bills in the long term, but NESO’s Clean Power 2030 advice warned that higher levels of CCS and hydrogen deployment could mean that gas still sets the price of electricity in up to 47% of periods. Is it not therefore misl…”

“A priority recommendation of the Climate Change Committee’s progress report last year was to remove policy levies from electricity bills. Obviously there are several ways of doing this, such as moving them to gas bills or general taxation. What are your preferred solutions to make electricity cheaper?”

“Indeed, if fewer people are using gas, that will become even worse.”

“Do you intend progress the green mortgages consultation from 2020, to help private homeowners to take on home energy improvements?”

“Turning now to long-duration electricity storage and batteries. Do you think the new cap-and-floor mechanism on its own is going to be enough to deliver the long-duration electricity storage we need by 2030? Could your Department be doing more to facilitate co-location of battery energy storage systems alongside genera…”

“On the point around the co-location of battery energy storage systems alongside generation, what you can do to facilitate that?”

“So there will potentially be positives for the cost of energy for consumers but also potentially costs in delivering it?”

“I thank the Minister for that clarification. In conclusion, I welcome the Bill and the protections it provides, but I urge Ministers to accept the Liberal Democrat amendments put forward by my hon. Friends the Members for Taunton and Wellington and for St Albans (Daisy Cooper).”

“I am sure that all Members have plenty of examples in their inboxes of why this Bill is so needed. Recent cases in my inbox have ranged from someone who had to wait two years for a boiler to be fixed, to someone who has a home so damp that they cannot walk through it without shoes on, as the carpets are permanently wet…”

“Following up one of the things you said, you talked about getting the auctions right. Can you briefly say what you mean by that?”

“Even though we still have this ongoing need for dispatchable power, to what extent do you think that decarbonising the power system will in fact shield customers from international gas prices?”