Speeches by Crichton.

“Simply, Chair, that the cost of living and energy bills are the biggest issue facing all voters. I serve the constituency that has the highest levels of fuel poverty in the UK; 40% of homes are in fuel poverty. This is a huge issue for my constituents and for constituents across the UK.”

“Along with that of the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), my constituency has an obvious interest in the High North and the defence of the western approaches. I welcome the £40 million investment in anti-submarine sonobuoys and the Atlantic Bastion operation’s defence of our subsea cables, but c…”

“Everybody—Ofgem, which was in earlier, as well as SSE, grid operators, GB Energy and NESO—loves community energy. They all want to do more. They say they cannot do more. They are agnostic about the difference between commercial and community, because they need direction from you. Will you give them that direction?”

“I have just one other question, on shared ownership, and I hear what you said. I like the hints that you are giving on shared ownership and allowing municipalities such as your own to buy into wind farms that are next to them. The 2015 Infrastructure Act gives the Secretary of State that power for urban and for rural c…”

“Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Emma, for coming in. Thank you, too, for your warm words of support on community energy. I do not remain to be convinced on the benefits of community ownership of energy. You have to go beyond warm words, because cleaning out the grid queue sounds great, but it did not help one commu…”

“You can incentivise it as well as making it mandatory.”

“Okay. Victoria, I want to talk a little bit about local supply as well, so people producing local power for local supply. It is seen as where we want to be, but there is so much regulation in the way of that, is there not? How do we knock these walls down?”

“Before we end, who do you need to tell you that community should have priority?”

“Ministers.”

“I have a quick question. In my focus on community ownership and local ownership, I forgot to ask about community benefit. It is currently set or recommended at £5,000 per installed megawatt, which everybody recognises as crumbs off the table. Will the local power plan address this? Do you think £5,000 is too low?”

“Just to reinforce that point, Marzia, 5 MW strikes me as deeply unambitious in terms of community energy. I come from a place where we have 23 MW already. One turbine is 5 MW. Thank you all for coming in. I have had Ofgem, GB Energy, the network suppliers, the community energy companies and the Government all in one ro…”

“I wanted to pick up on what Melanie was saying there, Helen, about the support that GB Energy will offer. What Melanie alluded to there was that communities run out of steam. They are voluntary. They are not experts, professionals, lawyers or logisticians. When we had Jürgen Maier in quite a while ago, I remember him s…”

“Some communities have vast expertise in this area and you could just plug it into another community if you wanted.”

“I have just one other question, on shared ownership, and I hear what you said. I like the hints that you are giving on shared ownership and allowing municipalities such as your own to buy into wind farms that are next to them. The 2015 Infrastructure Act gives the Secretary of State that power for urban and for rural c…”

“Marzia, getting on to the grid is a nightmare for everyone. One big thing we have heard about is this siloed thinking there is about transmission and generation, which I know works within grid providers and within Ofgem as well. Is this siloed thinking a hurdle to change? We hear examples. Like I said before, everyone …”

“You can incentivise it as well as making it mandatory.”

“Just to reinforce that point, Marzia, 5 MW strikes me as deeply unambitious in terms of community energy. I come from a place where we have 23 MW already. One turbine is 5 MW. Thank you all for coming in. I have had Ofgem, GB Energy, the network suppliers, the community energy companies and the Government all in one ro…”

“I have a quick question. In my focus on community ownership and local ownership, I forgot to ask about community benefit. It is currently set or recommended at £5,000 per installed megawatt, which everybody recognises as crumbs off the table. Will the local power plan address this? Do you think £5,000 is too low?”

“What do the Government need to do to get community energy on to the grid?”

“Before we end, who do you need to tell you that community should have priority?”