Graham Stuart
MP for Beverley and Holderness · Conservative · United Kingdom
“I hope and expect that we can move forward in the right way and get the balance right between being overly prescriptive to the banking industry and setting a clear sense of direction to make sure that no one is left behind, as so many Members have set out.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Wishart. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) on securing this debate.”
“Is my hon. Friend as astonished as I am that the Minister—I know she is new to her post—has come here to propose a six-month extension of the movement of costs from bills to the Exchequer and cannot tell the Committee how much money that will cost?”
“The Minister is being most generous again. I did not ask her about protecting consumers from energy price shocks; I asked about a clear, unequivocal manifesto pledge to reduce household energy bills by £300. She, like her predecessors, refuses to address it directly. It was a clear promise.”
“Banking hubs themselves came out of an industry response from the NatWest executive. Does the Minister agree that we must present the information from the Lloyd review to the banking groups, be clear about what we want, and give them the opportunity to respond and provide a solution, as they did with banking hubs, so that we can perhaps a…”
“I am pleased to say that Lloyds listened and, as of this morning, people can deposit cheques at those places. These issues being raised by Members across the House today are important. I trust that given the timing of the Richard Lloyd report, the Minister in her seat will make sure that they are be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.”
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“I am proud of the fact that we are a world leader, and of course it is only thanks to the CfD scheme, which relies on levies across the whole of GB, that we are able to realise the renewable potential in Scotland. If the separatists had their way, we would not see the development that I hope to see in offshore wind, tidal and other technologies thanks to the whole of the UK, and Great Britain in particular, working together.”
“We are the world leader, and the largest deployment of tidal stream in the world is in Scotland. We will shortly be making more announcements about allocation round 5. We will also be making announcements in the next few weeks about hydrogen, carbon capture and the future there, and I have already committed in the House to accelerating our approach to that.”
“Solar is a cheap and versatile technology. It is a key part of the Government’s strategy for net zero and I share the hon. Lady’s enthusiasm for it. We are aiming for up to 70 GW of installed solar capacity by 2035, and that represents a fivefold increase in our current capacity.”
“More than a million homes now have solar panels installed. According to data from the microgeneration certification scheme, a total of 130,596 solar panels were installed on UK rooftops last year alone, and that is more than 2019, 2020 and 2021 put together, but like the hon. Lady I want to see us go further and faster.”
“The planning system is designed to seek that balance with the need to secure a clean, green energy system. It is worth noting that ground-mounted solar has probably the lowest levelised cost of any form of energy in this country. The Government have clarified the definition of “best and most versatile” agricultural land as constituting lands in grades 1, 2 and 3a, and we do everything we can to incentivise that solar should go on brownfield land or land of lower agricultural value.”
“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Since 2015, 10 onshore wind projects totalling 30 MW have been consented for development in England, of which three have become operational.”
“The hon. Gentleman is a very fine Member of this House, but I really would warn him against reading out the screeds produced by his party centre. In 2010, just 7% of our electricity came from renewables; it is now heading its way to half. Onshore wind has an important part to play, and we are looking at ways in which we can enable communities that do support onshore wind to go ahead and deliver it.”
“I continue to discuss with colleagues the contribution that all parts of the country can make to help meet the UK’s net zero targets, including freeports. I was delighted to visit last year and see the transformation being delivered by Mayor Houchen. For instance, SeAH Wind’s £400 million factory investment for offshore wind monopiles will sit alongside the £107 million South Bank Quay on the Tees.”
“I have known the hon. Gentleman for a long time, so it is disappointing to hear his words. He is right to say that we need co-ordination across Government, including local government, and that is why it was particularly disappointing—and I hope the hon. Gentleman would condemn them—that Labour councillors voted against plans to bring £18 million of investment to Teesside. [ Interruption. ] They voted against the establishment of a new body that would bring £18 million of investment to Middlesbrough.”
“I am sure my hon. Friend is as delighted as I am that the United States and the EU are now following our lead in developing renewables, including offshore wind. We work closely with the Chancellor to ensure that the UK remains, as it has been consistently under this Government, the best place in the world in which to invest in offshore wind.”
“Seventy-seven per cent. of our energy today comes from fossil fuels. We will be using about a quarter of the gas we do today in 2050 under net zero. The idea that importing that, with higher emissions attached to it, rather than producing our own, is ridiculous environmentally, ridiculous economically and ridiculous in terms of maintaining the skills in the North sea that we are going to need for the transition, with hydrogen, carbon capture and other industries coming forward. I ask the Labour party to change its mind.”
“We are under a legal duty to ensure that we move to net zero, and I am delighted that we are continuing to make progress. The hon. Lady will see announcements from the Government by the end of March on our net zero plans.”
“A plethora of announcements, on a number of issues, will be coming out of the Department in the coming weeks. Hydrogen is an important area in which we are a world leader; it is my intention, as I know it is my hon. Friend’s, to ensure that we remain in pole position.”
“Friend the Member for North Somerset to support the passage of the Bill, which I am confident will not only introduce a fairer system but aid rather than break the fast change that we need to deliver in order to have the most competitive energy system in Europe in the 2030s, which I think will underpin the return of the UK—quite properly—to its position as the premier economic power in Europe. I believe that energy is often the foundation and the secret of economic success.”
“Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) talked about David and Goliath and about the need to ensure that we have a system of infrastructure that works fairly and equally for people, and reflected on his experience in his own constituency. My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith)—there is something of a Buckinghamshire massive here today— talked about solar farms and the need for infrastructure reinforcement, and pressed me on the timeline. I hope I gave a suitable answer. I am grateful to my officials, those in the Box and those outside: Daniel Boorman, Charles Grant, Alex Chittenden, Louise Sun and Susanna Isola from my private office. I look forward to working with my right hon.”
“Members who have participated at the various stages of this Bill’s progress through this place. Supporting this Bill is in line with our ongoing objective of ensuring that landowners have access to a clear, fair, affordable and enforceable system for dispute resolution. I am so grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset for introducing the Bill and for working so constructively with the Government to ensure that were able to deliver on this important issue. I hope all Members will agree that the |Bill should now move to the other place, where I hope it will gain the support of peers as it has gained the cross-party support of Members here. My hon.”
“The new clause retains the key factors that the proposals must consider: that decisions are enforceable and that the process is affordable and accessible, as my right hon. Friend so fluently laid out. Amendment 2 simply replaced “applies” with “extends” for the subsection dealing with territorial extent in clause 2 —a minor technical amendment to reflect more appropriate terminology. Amendment 3 changed commencement to two months after Royal Assent, bringing the Bill in line with standard commencement procedure for primary legislation. In line with the focus on electricity transmission infrastructure, amendment 4 removed “gas” from the Bill’s short title in clause 2. Finally, amendment 5 edited the Bill’s long title to reflect its contents in clause 1. I thank all hon.”
“We envisage that the taskforce will make a recommendation on scope to the Secretary of State. Amendments have been made to the Bill since Second Reading. I will now—briefly, I hope—explain the amendments and their purpose. Amendment 1 removed clause 1, which was replaced with new clause 1. The new clause focuses the proposals on electricity-related cases rather than gas-related cases. The new clause also moves away from proposals to establish a new mechanism to proposals to encourage use of alternative dispute resolution processes. That means that we can consider existing practices and whether they can be strengthened to meet the aims of the Bill, as well as whether new mechanisms are required.”
“I have been asked repeatedly and quite rightly about timelines, and that taskforce will be taken forward this year. Its work will complement the ongoing work within my Department. We are already reviewing the land rights and consents processes for network infrastructure. We published a call for evidence in 2022 and we are reviewing the responses. To answer my right hon. Friend’s question on whether the scope of the proposals will extend to the distribution network and to the refurbishment of existing infrastructure, the Bill sets out only which cases must be in scope of the proposals. The Secretary of State can decide whether to extend the scope to other electricity network-related cases, including the distribution network and, indeed, refurbishment where a DCO is not in place.”
“Transmission owners need access to private land when installing network infrastructure, and in that situation, the landowner is entitled to compensation. We recognise that in cases in which the landowner and the transmission owner cannot agree on compensation, challenging through the upper tribunal can be expensive for landowners. The Bill presents an opportunity to address that by ensuring access to alternative dispute resolution processes, which can play such a crucial role in offering a quicker and cheaper route to resolving disputes. We need the right expertise and the right balance of views to develop proposals, as my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset said. That is why we will establish an alternative dispute resolution taskforce to take the work forward.”
“The draft energy national policy statements were subject to parliamentary scrutiny, including by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, which published its report and recommendations on 25 February. When analysing the responses to that consultation, we will take account of those and of any other resolutions as we go forward. Let me talk now about the Bill. I have set out what we are doing to accelerate the build of network infrastructure, but as I have said, new network infrastructure must be built in a way that protects the rights of local landowners and communities. That is why the Bill has the Government’s support. We believe that it can be a bulwark for the vital transformation that is needed for our electricity network.”
“We intend to explore whether there should be a more standardised approach, or whether providing a framework or benchmark offers more flexibility that would be of benefit to the distinct needs of individual communities and projects. We will consult in the coming weeks on options for community benefits regarding onshore network infrastructure. The Government announced a review of the energy national policy statements to ensure that they reflect the policies set out in the energy White Paper net zero strategy and the British energy security strategy, and that we continue to have a planning policy framework that can deliver the investment required to build the infrastructure needed to ensure an independent, secure energy supply as we transition to net zero.”
“We are also working with Ofgem to speed up its regulatory approvals process. So in December, Ofgem published its decision on accelerating strategic transmission investment, which includes exempting certain strategic projects from being subject to competition. That provided greater clarity and certainty to industry on which projects should be progressed, and by whom. Communities that host network infrastructure are playing a vital role in ensuring a cheaper, cleaner and self-sufficient energy supply in Britain. It is therefore only right that they benefit from developments in their area. Although benefits to communities are already offered by industry, now is the right time, given the scale and rate of change to which hon. Members have referred, to review how community benefits are delivered.”
“The commissioner is tasked with looking at where further improvements can be made beyond what is already in train across Government and will be looking at providing recommendations on crucial issues such as strategic network planning, planning consent and regulatory approvals. His work commenced in September and he continues to work intensively with stakeholders across the development process, within Government and across industry so that his work can deliver a valuable contribution to my Department’s aims. He hopes to submit his final recommendations to the Government for review in June. The commissioner is working in collaboration with the offshore wind champion, Tim Pick, and the offshore wind acceleration taskforce, given the importance of electricity networks to the offshore wind deployment we need.”
“The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published its nationally significant infrastructure project reform action plan just yesterday, and our consultation on the revised energy national policy statements is imminent. Additionally, work is ongoing to improve work with communities and to expedite Ofgem’s regulatory approval process, but we recognise that more needs to be done. That is why in July last year my Department appointed Nick Winser CBE to the role of electricity networks commissioner. He is advising Government on how the development process for transmission infrastructure can be accelerated. He has extensive experience in electricity networks and is currently chair of the Energy Systems Catapult, which provides technical, commercial and policy expertise to drive innovation across the whole energy system.”
“The current position offers an unacceptable timeline when the electricity network is a critical enabler of our domestic energy production targets and our decarbonisation targets. We committed in the British energy security strategy to significantly reduce the timelines by about three years for delivering onshore transmission network infrastructure. We aspire to halve this end-to-end process by the mid-2020s. So we are working with developers and supply chains to increase pipeline visibility and certainty, to help accelerate the procurement. Work is already under way to improve the strategic planning of network infrastructure, including the holistic network design. We are also improving the planning and consenting process.”
“The Bill is about the building of network infrastructure, and the planning and consenting process. I thought it would be helpful to set out the Government’s commitments in this area and the work that is already under way. It currently takes about 12 to 14 years to build or reinforce new onshore electricity transmission network infrastructure, from the initial planning to the final completion and commissioning. The development of new transmission infrastructure is often on the critical path for the connection of new generation. The wonderful and extraordinary new generation that we have helped bring about, and are going to bring about in the future, is of no use if we do not have the infrastructure to get the electrons to where they need to go.”
“That will have a transformative effect, not only in terms of our leading the world in reducing emissions, as we have done to date under this Government, but in enabling the re-industrialisation of the north, Scotland and Wales, with all the economic benefits that come with that. It is this Government, not the Labour party, who have delivered. When Labour left power in 2010 only 7% of our electricity came from renewables, but now it is nearly half. We are going further and faster, but making sure we do it in a way that works with the grain of communities, because if we ride roughshod over them, they will come back and will slow us down. To answer the hon. Lady’s point, this Bill will not slow down what we are doing; it will enable us to move at the speed required and make sure that we do so in a way that retains community support.”
“Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), but it seemed clear from its tone that the Labour party prefers appropriation to the reasonable treatment of people in delivering this. Of course, failing to engage properly with communities will slow down the transformation we need. People thinking they can ride roughshod over communities because they scream, “Climate emergency and urgency” is not the way to do it; we have to go with the grain of communities. We have to explain the narrative. What is our narrative? As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has set out, we have a vision of delivering the most competitive, lowest-cost clean energy in Europe by 2035.”
“I am pleased that all the amendments were accepted in Committee on 25 January, and I am delighted to offer my support for the Bill as the Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Although the name of my Department may have changed, the position of the Government has not, and I can confirm that the Government are fully supportive of the Bill. One key priority of the new Department is ensuring that the UK is on track to meet its legally binding net zero commitment and support economic growth by significantly speeding up delivery of electricity network infrastructure and domestic electricity generation. The nation will have been grateful for the speech made by the hon.”
“Once again, may I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) for introducing this important legislation? I am afraid that I am not the historian of legislation that I ought to be, so I have no idea whether any Member in history has ever managed to get two private Members’ Bills in a row put into law, but my right hon. Friend is a remarkable man, and he has shown that once again by successfully steering this Bill through. The machine, as ever, always responds by trying to kill it, but such is his dexterity, insight and flexibility that no attempt to kill it is successful, and he finds a way through to deliver something that will be good for everyone.”
“In accordance with section 18 of the Act and subject to relevant Government approvals, including in respect of value for money, the Secretary of State will direct the revenue collection counterparty to offer to contract with a nuclear company. The revenue collection contract terms will be negotiated with the Government for each project.”
“Once a nuclear company has been designated for the purposes of the 2022 Act by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State is empowered to modify the company’s electricity generation licence to incorporate RAB terms and conditions, permitting it to receive regulated revenue overseen by Ofgem, the regulatory authority. That revenue will cover activities in respect of the design, construction, commissioning and operation of the project, and activities pursuant to an approved funded decommissioning programme. The company’s revenues will be funded in part by levies on all licensed electricity suppliers in Great Britain, which may choose to pass those costs to their consumers. As we discussed during the passage of the 2022 Act, the use of a RAB funding model can help to drive down the overall cost of new nuclear projects for consumers.”
“The regulations implement the legislative framework behind the RAB revenue stream. Although they are not specific to Sizewell C, approving the draft instrument is a further step towards establishing a model that could support the development of the Sizewell C project and multiple nuclear projects in the future. That will ultimately contribute to a resilient, affordable and low-carbon electricity system, helping us to achieve our net zero ambitions and providing energy security for the British people. Let me set out the legislative framework for how the RAB revenue stream will operate.”
“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Nuclear Regulated Asset Base Model (Revenue Collection) Regulations 2023. It is a great privilege to speak under your chairmanship, Dame Caroline. The regulations were laid before the House on 15 December 2022. On 31 March last year, following constructive debates and wide support in the House, the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Act 2022 received Royal Assent. The Act provides the legislative framework to implement a regulated asset base—or RAB—funding model to support the financing of new nuclear technologies. Since the passage of that legislation, the Government have taken the historic step of investing in Sizewell C —our first investment in a nuclear project for 35 years—and designated it as the first project to use the RAB funding model.”
“As the hon. Gentleman will know, Hinkley was done on a different basis, with a strike price that was agreed with EDF Energy, CGN Europe Energy and others. It is completely different. I would have thought the hon. Gentleman knew that, with the close interest that he takes in knocking nuclear at every effort without ever reading the science or seeing the importance of nuclear to delivering the net zero future that we all hope for.”
“In developing the regulations, we sought to replicate the revenue mechanics under the legislative framework for contracts for difference, with differences to account for the specific features of the RAB model. This is because the revenue stream for CfDs was designed with similar considerations in mind to the nuclear RAB revenue stream—that is, incentivising private sector investment in low-carbon electricity, which I hope we all devoutly wish for. More significantly, the regulations will put in place a recognised and reliable revenue model that investors and electricity suppliers are familiar with, which we anticipate will minimise the impacts of introducing such measures on suppliers and their consumers.”
“I will make a little more progress, if I may. Once the nuclear company accepts the offer and the revenue collection contract is entered into, the draft regulations will establish the mechanism for electricity suppliers to make payments to the revenue collection counterparty, so that it can pay amounts owed to the nuclear company. The revenue collection counterparty can also return money to suppliers, hold sums in reserve and cover its losses through requiring suppliers to post collateral and undergo a payment mutualisation process in the event of supplier default. The regulations also set out arrangements for the collection of a levy from suppliers to pay for the counterparty’s operating costs.”
“During the passage of the Act, Members of this House and the other place raised some concerns in respect of which I hope I can offer suitable reassurance. Perhaps most important were the concerns about the potential impacts of RAB levies on consumers. Through our consultation, we sought views on the inclusion of measures to prevent suppliers from passing on the costs to vulnerable consumers. Having considered the responses, we remain of the view that it would be better to mitigate potential impacts on vulnerable consumers through holistic measures that deal with people’s overall energy bills, rather than tying actions to these regulations specifically. We do not believe this is the appropriate point in the process to bring in measures to protect vulnerable consumers.”
“I will wait for historic refreshment, if such there is, although I am sure the hon. Gentleman recognises that the RAB model is designed to ensure that, given the capital requirements and intensity, it lowers the cost of capital, thereby making the investment more desirable, which it does by sharing some of the risks. Our calculation is that it therefore leads to a lower cost to the public purse in the long term. The draft regulations have been informed by a full public consultation—undertaken last year between 14 June and 9 August—which sought views on the proposals to replicated the CfD framework and the various differences needed for the RAB model. We received 40 responses from organisations and members of the public, who were, for the most part, supportive of the proposals.”
“I believe, given the scale of this project, that that is proportionate, given the benefits nuclear offers for our electricity mix. Ultimately, by having nuclear power we will deliver a lower-cost system for consumers than if we relied on intermittent, low-carbon power sources alone. To touch briefly on scope, the regulations will not apply to suppliers in Northern Ireland.”
“Relevant measures include those recently announced in the November autumn statement—this is where I fill out the hon. Gentleman’s holistic insight—such as the cost of living payments to households on means-tested benefits and for pensioners, not to mention the £37 billion of Government support for the cost of living previously announced in 2022. I hope this is getting more and more holistic for the hon. Gentleman. Members should be reassured that the likely impact on household bills because of the nuclear RAB would be low. We have estimated that for a generic project approved in this Parliament, it would cost each typical household dual-fuel bill approximately £1 a month on average during the construction phase.”
“Like the hon. Gentleman, when I hear the word holistic it tends to get my nose twitching. To use other language, the point is that this is not the appropriate moment to address that. However, as the hon. Gentleman well knows, we are consulting and will come forward with a new system to protect vulnerable consumers from April 2024 onwards. We feel that it is elsewhere in the overall energy system that we are best able to intervene to protect vulnerable customers from such costs, or indeed other costs in the system, whereas to come in specifically at each structure we set up to encourage generation would create a system that is over-complex and might, through that complexity, not deliver in the way that both he and I would wish to protect the most vulnerable.”
“I will give the hon. Gentleman one more opportunity to justify his clearly unreasonable opposition to nuclear, even when it offers a clean, net zero-compliant future and lower bills for people up and down the country, including in Scotland.”
“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. As I have shared with the Committee, we expect that the cost would be around that level of £1. That should provide reassurance. For those who have an ideological opposition to nuclear, there are no numbers that would provide reassurance. We have those who are on the side of science on the one side and those on the side of ideology on the other, and it is quite clear where the hon. Gentleman sits. The regulations provide the Government with a unique opportunity to deliver a number of benefits, helping us to create a resilient, low-carbon energy system, delivering value for money for consumers and creating thousands of well-paid jobs across the country. I commend the regulations to the Committee.”
“Hinkley Point C was the right deal, struck at the right time, to support the UK’s first nuclear power station in a generation, using a new reactor technology, as he rightly said. The National Audit Office has identified that risk-sharing models such as RAB could deliver better value than contracts for difference, and Hinkley Point C is delivering multiple benefits, including 15,000 job opportunities and £4 billion spent with companies in the south-west alone. Many Scottish consumers will wish that the ideology of the Scottish nationalists did not get in the way of them also having such opportunities.”
“His ideological opposition to nuclear flies in the face of the science, global opinion and the UN, among others. The hon. Member for Southampton, Test raised the issue of the LCCC’s running costs. A robust internal governance and approvals process was completed before finalising the operational cost levy rates that are included in the draft revenue regulations, which are intended to meet their operating costs. We consulted on the levy, and the total annual impact of the levy on household electricity bills over financial year 2022-23 to 2023-24 was estimated to be negligible. If LCCC expenditure is less than income from the levy, any surplus would be refunded to suppliers and then on to consumers, which is how that system works. The hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun asked about the impact assessment.”
“On the issue of investment in Sizewell C, we know from conversations with multiple investors that there is a strong interest in supporting infrastructure that delivers energy security and net zero. The importance of nuclear has been made even clearer by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and we are not exactly alone in holding that view. Among others, the Climate Change Committee, the International Energy Agency and the UN Economic Commission for Europe have all highlighted the role for new nuclear electricity-generating capacity. The UN Economic Commission was particularly clear—perhaps the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun will take it up with them—that “the world’s climate objectives will not be met if nuclear technologies are excluded” from decarbonisation policy solutions.”
“I thank the hon. Members for Southampton, Test and for Kilmarnock and Loudoun for their contributions. It is clear that our electricity system must be resilient and affordable as well as low-carbon, and that means that we need nuclear power. The regulations are required fully to establish the RAB model and enable sufficiently advanced nuclear projects to benefit from this new funding model, which can support our ambition to reach final investment decision on new projects, subject to relevant approvals, and to secure a low-carbon, low-cost and resilient electricity system to ensure our energy security and prosperity. Let me reply to some of the numerous questions that have been asked.”
“Notwithstanding his dislike of the nomenclature, I set out how we are supporting constituents in various ways going forward. On decommissioning, details of the costs for Sizewell C are subject to ongoing development and are commercially sensitive. Both the FDP and the full value-for-money assessment will—or would—be published at the point of a final investment decision, if indeed that is reached, as we hope that it will be. A further question was asked about design costs and whether the charge could come then. On average, for the entire construction period, it will be about £1 per week for a dual-fuel household, as I set out earlier. That is not when operational, when producing energy, but in those early stages.”