Speeches by Miliband.

“Are you talking about where levies are—”

“Well, that is definitely something that we are embarked upon and I covered it earlier. These are difficult questions. On the issue of electricity prices, I think the potential, both for business and for families, of clean power by 2030 is giving some certainty to business and others—giving that security that frankly th…”

“The reality is that the best thing we can do in the shorter term is to work with the companies to make sure there is proper help for people. We have a warm home discount in place for some of the most vulnerable. Then you get to issues like energy efficiency and insulation, which can make a difference, and solar batteri…”

“We always look at these issues, and obviously there are direct impacts on public expenditure and other implications. We continue to keep under review the scale of the warm home discount, which is our current measure for this, and the group that gets helped by the warm home discount, and we are always looking for ways—t…”

“The way I think about this is, to take the heat pump grant for example, it is not a means-tested scheme so there is universal help available. We want to do more to develop the financing offer for the able-to-pay market, working with the banks and others, and that is something that will be part of our warm homes plan la…”

“I absolutely think a social tariff is something that we need to look at. Different people mean different things by a social tariff. We have a social tariff in its infancy, if you like, through the warm home discount, but I definitely think that part of what we need to be examining the case for and the ability for us to…”

“It is very much part of the discussions we are having about how we can co-operate for mutual benefit on these issues around energy. Clearly we have interconnectors in place, which are part of the co-operation. If you go back to something like CCS, there are big opportunities for European co-operation. We are part of NS…”

“I have followed quite a lot of the very interesting questioning you have done of NESO and of Emma Pinchbeck on these issues, and I will try to set this out as clearly as I can. It is a complex area. I think this 47% can be a little bit misleading, because the extent you get the benefits of cheaper of renewables does no…”

“In a way this was my answer to Bradley earlier. The Nesta report puts it quite well. There is a world where you transfer all the levies to public expenditure. No doubt all of us in our fantasy world would like that to happen. It is billions of pounds of costs. I do not think it will surprise the Committee if I say that…”

“Exactly.”

“This is definitely something we want to work on, as I think I said to Polly. It is important to realise the potential here. If you think about the potential around solar, batteries and heat pumps, with half-hourly settlements, I think we are underestimating the extent that this can make a massive difference to consumer…”

“There will not be a ban because Rishi Sunak never legislated for the ban and then he said he would not do it. The answer is that we said in our manifesto that we will not force anyone to rip out their gas boiler. Again, I want to be frank with you, Chair: I am very cautious on these questions because we can say to peop…”

“The future homes standard is a matter for MHCLG and they will be coming forward with proposals. There are massive advantages to us in ensuring from the outset that homes are built to a low-carbon spec. There is enthusiasm for this among the house builders and others. To give you the vision here, because it is important…”

“I am pleased we have gone into injury time or extra time or whatever it is called these days; I am giving you my age here. You raise a wider point—I will come to your specific question—about the role of trade unions in this transition. We have a different view from the last Government on the role of trade unions in thi…”

“I definitely will. What I would say at a general level is that we want GB Energy to be a model of what a good employer looks like, working with the trade unions. I know this is important to Juergen Maier, who is the start-up chair of GB Energy, and I am happy to write to you in more detail about that.”

“I think it goes to this wider question that is in all of this, and this is the next stage of what mission control, led by Chris Stark, will do. Workforce planning is incredibly important, because there is huge potential for jobs in some of the areas you have talked about, including in home heating. Where will we get th…”

“Explain the question again please, Chair.”

“This is the work we are engaged on across Government, working with Skills England, and my Department is engaging. You are right that it is a challenge. I do not want to have rose-tinted spectacles here, but there is a massive opportunity. I want to assure you that part of our job, for the first six months, is to get th…”

“You are right to raise this as a challenge, and it goes to the more general challenge. There is lively disagreement about the scale of where heat pumps can work and where they cannot, but I think there is consensus that we are going to need many more heat pumps installed across the country. I think this is doable. One …”

“In the interests of time, Chair, since we are in overtime, I am going to be relatively brief. There is an important role for hydrogen in our economy. We touched on it a little bit earlier in relation to industry. The issue of hydrogen in home heating is something we are examining. We have said in our response to the Cl…”