Speeches by Collinge.

“That is actually a reasonable question. The answer is that we had to make sure the country could afford it and we had to take a strategic approach to tackling child poverty. What we were not going to do, given the absolute state of the economy when we came into government, was make very quick decisions on such a scale.…”

“I would welcome the hon. Gentleman sending me those statistics, but they go against all the other pieces of evidence I have seen, particularly for serious crime. Obviously there are spikes in particular crimes. Phone theft, for example, has been a real problem in London, as it has been elsewhere because they are now ve…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I want my constituency, where beauty surrounds and health abounds, to be a place where everyone feels safe on the high street. There is still work to be done, but I am committed to doing that work alongside our local partners. Central to that is the Government’s …”

“When the Labour Government came to office, 4.5 million children were living in poverty, and I believe that that is a moral stain on our nation. It has been a central mission of this Labour Government to tackle child poverty in all its forms. They are taking a range of measures, like introducing breakfast clubs. We have…”

“My hon. Friend is entirely right. Parents, in my experience, will do anything to protect their children from the harsh realities of life. It is parents who go without food. It is parents who have to go to the food bank. I remember the first time I met the people running the food bank in Morecambe, in 2017. I walked up …”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that fecklessness is not limited to any one socioeconomic group. It is interesting how people born into great wealth consider their position to be due only to their very hard work, yet they consider it to be other people’s own fault if they are born into poverty. That is really qu…”

“9. What steps his Department is taking to help increase economic growth in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency.”

“In my constituency of Morecambe and Lunesdale, we have the Electech innovation cluster, which is a growing group of small and medium-sized firms, many of which supply specialist components into the clean energy sector, particularly nuclear, and into the vital defence sector. The Minister would be welcome to visit them.…”

“That takes me on to my next question. You have talked about the lessons we have learned from our European counterparts, but the International Development Committee has recommended that there is a two-way learning mechanism between us and low and middle-income countries on community energy. I would be interested in any …”

“I will try to be quick then, Chair. I want to talk about the UK’s international climate policy and links with community energy. Has your engagement with community energy stakeholders on this very ambitious target of 8 GW informed the approach to our international climate policy in any way? Is there any interaction betw…”

“I will happily follow this up in writing to give you the proper overview, but in the example that was given to me, this local government officer was very clear that there was no technical barrier to this scheme being used more widely. It was a regulatory barrier. I will follow up with details, but that is not really th…”

“Moving on to other regulations, I have heard from local organisations, including local government-led clean energy projects, that there are barriers that are regulatory, not technical. The example that was given to me was that they have a renewable energy project that, by regulation, can only benefit the people on one …”

“Finally, Chair, if I may, one of my many councils, given my constituency, under a rainbow of different administrations, has been very forward-thinking in decarbonisation and taking its commitment to net zero very seriously. In the past, there have been funding streams for local government to decarbonise, and a lot of t…”

“I want to talk about planning because it is very exciting. First of all, when it comes to community energy projects, we have been told that they often face barriers at planning at the local level. Who is responsible for planning when it comes to community energy projects? Is it your Department or MHCLG?”

“If we wanted to see changes to the planning system to enable community energy, we need to get MHCLG.”

“Throughout the previous evidence session and conversations we have had, I feel like, when we are talking about community energy specifically, there is a bit of a tension between our different ambitions. I wanted to explore that a bit, particularly in terms of grid priority for community projects. Ofgem told us earlier …”

“We have been told that, under the national planning policy framework, we have a definition of community-led energy, but it is not currently able to be considered as a material consideration in a planning decision. The benefits of reducing grid pressure, network investments and consumer flexibility cannot be considered …”

“I am not sure that we should be prioritising community. I have not made my mind up on that. The argument for getting in with big amounts of megawatts to meet that target makes sense. On the other hand, we have communities that are trying to make their energy cheaper and to also contribute to flexibility in the grid sys…”

“Except it seems to always be very specific to that site and the land base. Broader considerations, such as benefits to the community of cheaper energy or whatever it is, do not seem to be given an awful lot of weight in the planning system. If you made it a material consideration, the argument is that it would be easie…”

“That takes me on to my next question. You have talked about the lessons we have learned from our European counterparts, but the International Development Committee has recommended that there is a two-way learning mechanism between us and low and middle-income countries on community energy. I would be interested in any …”