Speeches by Reader.

“You would say the current system gives the consumer best value.”

“I will pick up a bit on what the Chair was talking about. What options are there beyond the RIIO price control mechanism to avoid network costs making up an ever-increasing share of bills, and who should be responsible for implementing them?”

“Coming to my final question, we have heard that the previous transmission network use of system charges levied a lot of money on generators in the past towards building a network that was never built. Is that true?”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the collection of, setting of standards relating to, and secure sharing of geotechnical data derived from ground and site investigations; to require the integration of such data into the National Underground Asset Register; to confer duties o…”

“Does the consumer debt mountain worry you? Is your Department doing enough to tackle the billions and billions of pounds of consumer debt within our energy system?”

“We had this in the previous session. A friend put it to me that you are doing exactly what the Opposition said you should do: you are cutting the green crap. You are cutting levies and putting it to cut people’s bills. That is an interesting way of putting the £150, but do you see that the argument could be made that y…”

“I have feedback that the industry feels that NESO gives one message to the Department and another to those on the ground. Do you think that NESO is completely honest with the Department on its performance and the issues?”

“The network is probably not the sexiest part of what you talk about at the Dispatch Box, but it is pretty critical. As someone put it to me, we pay to build the network, use the network, maintain the network and decommission the network, but we do not own the network. Is that right?”

“This is my final question. I raised it with colleagues that, as well as the focus on generation, we need focus on storage. Again, it is perhaps not the sexiest part of the Department’s role, but the feedback I have had is that they do not feel there is the same emphasis on storage from the Department as there is on gen…”

“My colleague from the Environmental Audit Committee recognised that grid connections are one of the biggest challenges. Developers in my constituency also tell me that. We have had some not great feedback on the performance of NESO, in terms of connections. When they came in front of our Committee, they assured us that…”

“Secretary of State, I want to pick up on a couple of things you have said. You have used some very careful wording around matters relating to your Department where, ultimately, the decision comes from the Treasury. In response to Torcuil, you talked about the Chancellor’s decision on windfall, and when you talked about…”

“Secretary of State, like all good Labour Back Benchers, I wake up in the morning and read through my well-thumbed version of the Labour manifesto. In preparing for today, I looked at what you said to the nation 18 months ago and where we are at now. I think it is fair to say that there have been a lot of brilliant anno…”

“I will lose my time, Secretary of State. There is a lot to cover. You mentioned rooftop solar. People in my constituency are not actually that worried about housing; they are worried about rooftop solar on warehousing. Why can’t we unlock that? It feels to my constituents like such an easy win, and they don’t see the D…”

“Northampton is one of the towns across the UK that will benefit from the local power plan. Does the Secretary of State agree that my schools, colleges and universities, the four hospitals in my constituency, and my sports clubs, including the Cobblers—one of the greenest football clubs in the country—will benefit from …”

“One of the biggest objections is to the action that the Government will take in addressing energy security in our country through onshore wind, onshore solar and expanding and putting resilience into the transition network. From my inbox, the biggest argument against all those things is that it impacts on food security…”

“Is that one of the challenges we face in building support for the energy transition? Has it been such an issue for such a long time that people are a bit blind to it or used to talking about it?”

“Is it fair to say, therefore, that changes to taxation on farmers is a much bigger issue than climate change? That was a political issue that drew out the farming community en masse, but we do not see that same level of concern from the farming community about climate.”

“Given the prevalence of the impact on food security and food production, why are the CLA and the NFU not more prominent in their campaigning on the climate crisis?”

“Judicaelle, I will stick with you. Is it fair to say that climate change is having a major impact on food production in the UK?”

“That leads me to my next question on authorities that are sceptical of climate change. My local authority, West Northamptonshire council, which is run by reform, has banned the words “net zero”, and has banned training or any focus on it. It even withdrew great council projects from the wards, because they did not want…”