Speeches by Reader.

“Verity, anything more on regulation?”

“This is a very minor one. Paul, you mentioned the warm homes plan. How do you see that working for business? What is the recommendation there? Sorry, I did not quite follow.”

“That would be quite beneficial where you have people living on premises, like in pubs.”

“On the advice service, didn’t you say that there already is one offered by industry? Should Government offer that if industry is already providing an advice service?”

“I was just going to pick up on the point you made, Chair. When we lose our sovereign production, we then have to go overseas. Particularly for chemicals, that puts us in quite a difficult position for supply chain. When industry is thinking about energy costs, do you see enough from Government on the impact of supply c…”

“It is interesting to hear from you today and in other evidence how critical energy costs are, and it is good to hear that potentially if we solve that we will see lots of your members investing in manufacturing and production in the UK. I am sure there are no other issues that are stopping them from doing that. Nissan …”

“I guess we have heard the answer to my next question all the way through the session. Is this having an impact on international competitiveness? I wanted to explore that a bit more. If we did solve this energy cost issue, would that really drive investment from your businesses into the UK? Is that really the big issue …”

“In a wider sense in terms of energy security and net zero, carbon impacts on pricing, of course. Where we have seen government investing in direct schemes—such as Peak Cluster, which will help clients in the MPA—does that boost business confidence as well, that the Government are taking more proactive actions to addres…”

“The industrial strategy talks about the benefits of the Government’s deal with the EU and exploring re-entering the EU electricity market. Do you think that would be a good idea for your industries?”

“So, whoever is going to do that exploration—if there are opportunities at DESNZ or it is going to be DEBATE, or whoever is owning that with the industrial strategy—we want to see that sooner rather than later to be able to benefit from those benefits you are talking about. Is that fair?”

“Any final comments on that?”

“Any final comments on that?”

“Paul, we heard from EDF, and it felt that that was not appropriate, because SMEs have their own usage patterns and requirements. For your members, would a price cap work, given the variety of them?”

“Do you think Ofgem is doing enough to address transparency and make sure customers are treated fairly in the business sector?”

“David, the BBPA did recommend to us that a price cap would be appropriate particularly for their sector. Do you think that sector-specific caps, like for hospitality, where there is such an economic and social benefit from the sector, would be appropriate?”

“Verity, anything more on regulation?”

“This is a very minor one. Paul, you mentioned the warm homes plan. How do you see that working for business? What is the recommendation there? Sorry, I did not quite follow.”

“That would be quite beneficial where you have people living on premises, like in pubs.”

“On the advice service, didn’t you say that there already is one offered by industry? Should Government offer that if industry is already providing an advice service?”

“I was just going to pick up on the point you made, Chair. When we lose our sovereign production, we then have to go overseas. Particularly for chemicals, that puts us in quite a difficult position for supply chain. When industry is thinking about energy costs, do you see enough from Government on the impact of supply c…”