Speeches by Shanks.

“We will say more on the plan, but we are not fixing a scheme.”

“I did not see all of the previous panel, but if I understand the point, it comes down to defining community energy, which is something that we will do. That is not quite the same, and so we do need to come up with a definition of community energy. Many people think, “Why is that complex?” The reason it is complex is th…”

“Let me say first that smaller-scale projects have been taken out of the queue altogether. I should say that this is not in Scotland. For different reasons in Scotland and the islands it is much lower. In the rest of the UK, raising it to 5 MW takes out a large number of those community energy projects from that queue a…”

“I do not think that that is unqualified, though, Chair. Yes, we want to see a supply chain in the UK. We want to see factories built and we have investment from countries around the world in building that supply chain here in the UK. That is good, but our national security comes first. That trumps any other considerati…”

“There are many options that we consulted on, and we will give a response to that consultation in due course, but the ambition has been very clear from us that shared ownership is a really good opportunity to get big-scale involvement of communities in the ownership of energy.”

“I would need to check on the specifics, but many of the things that you have mentioned are considered in a broader sense in the planning application. By necessity, a planning application has to be based on the impact of that individual application on a local area.”

“The third part is a reflection on the state of the country after a decade or more of austerity. The capacity in local councils, for example, which often drove some of these innovative projects, has been hollowed out, and so we are having to rebuild some of that capacity. We want to give communities a sounding board and…”

“That is a fair question. I will follow up on the individual example. We did a widespread piece of consultation, indeed called Barriers to Community Energy Projects. We had a significant number of contributions to that and we also did workshops across the country to really get into detail on some of those issues. It is …”

“The local power plan will not cover this, but we have a separate consultation that we will respond to soon on the question of mandatory community benefits. We will set out in that what our response is both to the levels and to whether it should be mandatory or voluntary. We think there should be more ambition in this s…”

“We will look at the funding schemes that we put in place for local energy, which will include an element of support for local councils. That will not be on an “every council has an allocation” basis but by allocating to projects that we think are valuable to take forward. In truth, there have been some fantastic exampl…”

“I would challenge that. I see my job as a Minister not to just sit behind a desk and say yes or no to things, but to drive forward the outcomes of what we have said. Before I was an MP and before I was a teacher, I worked in an organisation that was all about outcomes, not about activity. It was about saying, “You can …”

“I cannot say what is specifically in the local power plan, but it definitely will be a balance of local and community energy. We have been clear on that. We will set out the fact that this is a Government commitment, but it is a shared enterprise between Great British Energy, Government and communities.”

“A number of investors want to come and build and invest in the UK. Every single one of those is subject to a national security assessment and the proposal from Ming Yang is being actively considered on that basis. I cannot be drawn on the decision on that, which has not been made.”

“I would challenge that. I see my job as a Minister not to just sit behind a desk and say yes or no to things, but to drive forward the outcomes of what we have said. Before I was an MP and before I was a teacher, I worked in an organisation that was all about outcomes, not about activity. It was about saying, “You can …”

“Let me just say right now, knowing that it is on the record, that I am accountable for this. Ed Miliband, as the Secretary of State, has taken it incredibly seriously. We, as Ministers, are responsible.”

“The balance is that we have to weigh the role that it might play in our supply chain against any national security risks, and national security always comes first. That assessment is critical and then we assess the role that it might play in the supply chain.”

“It is a really fair question. There is a tension there. The clean power action plan did not designate individual projects or scale of projects. It designated the targets we want for each type of technology. It is then left to the individual projects that come forward, because Government do not direct the projects. It i…”

“I accept that point to a degree, but in fairness this is not a Department that has set ambitions and then not followed them. We have set incredibly ambitious targets for 2030, and we have gone at it relentlessly. We are now going to set ambitious targets—the biggest commitment to community energy that this country has …”

“We said in our manifesto when we were elected as a Government that we wanted to significantly change the ownership of energy in this country. That remains absolutely our ambition. It has not changed. This plan is around how we take the initial steps to get to these projects going from, at the moment, a very low startin…”

“I will answer it in a second. Emma was just going to come in on the last question, if that is okay.”