Ed Davey
MP for Kingston and Surbiton · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s opening remarks, not least about the 25th anniversary of the horrific terror attacks of 9/11. I welcome the Government finally banning imports from illegal Israeli settlements, something Keir Starmer should have done a long time ago.”
“I thank the Prime Minister for that answer. Britain should be the safest country in the world to have a baby. We will keep raising this issue until it is the safest.”
“No mother should have to give birth in such circumstances. Does the Prime Minister agree that Musgrove Park cannot wait until 2033 for work to start on a new maternity unit? Will he offer a meeting to local MPs, so we can move it forward? And will he make fixing the maternity scandal across our country a top priority of his Government?”
“I hope at that summit the Prime Minister will negotiate a good deal for our country, our economy and our defence, and that means rejoining the single market. North Devon’s maternity unit has been closed for three weeks due to staff shortages, so women now have to travel for up to two hours to give birth.”
“The Prime Minister said yesterday that Brexit ushered in “a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration.” —[ Official Report , 1 September 2026; Vol. 790, c. 27.] He is right. Our economy is stuck in this mess thanks to the Conservatives—and the leader of Reform UK—and their terrible Brexit deal.”
“There are so many more problems in our political system: too much power in the hands of social media barons who interfere in our politics and crypto billionaires who use donations to buy influence; and too little power in the hands of our people.”
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“No, there is more than one company, as I think the right hon. Lady will find when she checks. Ofgem and my Department agree that Ofgem’s voluntary measures do not go far enough, so the latter has been working on a mandatory auction, and it might well be that some sort of trading obligation is the way forward. I can confirm that I have been considering this matter intensively for some time, and that I will bring forward measures in the Bill to address it. At the very least, these will be back-stop powers in case the efforts of industry and the regulator prove insufficient. If we are to drive competition in the generating side of the electricity market to help people and firms struggling with bills, we must address the liquidity problem. The right hon. Lady’s policy does not do that, but ours does.”
“The only way to ensure greater transparency is to have more liquid markets. That is the whole point of liquid markets. Without them, people cannot compete or buy and sell their electricity forward, and we cannot ensure price transparency. That ought to be welcomed by the Labour party. I would be worried if it set its face against greater liquidity in the forward market. It would be a very odd position to take. I have spent some time explaining how our various policies will promote fiercer competition and help cut bills, and I have set out why I think the Opposition’s proposals are fundamentally flawed.”
“We put quite a lot of social obligations on them now. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the carbon emissions reduction target scheme is being replaced by the energy company obligation, which will include the affordable warmth target to help people in fuel poverty, and the carbon saving community obligation to help areas in fuel poverty. There will also be measures promoting solid wall insulation and other things needed to take energy efficiency policies forward.”
“As part of our policy, energy efficiency is a top priority for me, because reducing demand saves consumers money now and reduces future pressure on supply. I will give just two examples, although I am sure that Members across the House could give many more. Installing solid wall insulation saves about £270 a year on the average energy bill, while upgrading an old, G-rated boiler to a modern, A-rated one can save £200 a year. Our flagship green deal scheme will make it easier for home owners and tenants to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, paying for those improvements through savings on their fuel bills. I hope that we will continue to have the Opposition’s support, but I am not always clear where they stand on the green deal.”
“That is one reason why I welcome the retail market review, and we will be consulting on measures and introducing them in the Energy Bill to address those and other matters. I want to talk briefly about energy efficiency, although I am conscious of the time. On the social tariffs that the hon. Member for Luton South (Gavin Shuker) talked about, and on energy policy across the board, it is important to see both sides of the equation and understand what we are trying to do with clean energy. By 2020, all the energy and renewable subsidies combined will add £95 to bills, yet those same bills will fall by about £220, thanks to the energy efficiency improvements that our policies are bringing forward. Our green policies are about lower bills, not higher, and we are delivering on that.”
“Whether through reform of the energy market, our proposals on competition or our proposals on energy efficiency, the Government are taking action that will help people with their bills. The right hon. Lady’s motion would do the reverse—her proposals are fundamentally flawed—so I invite my colleagues to join me in the Division Lobby and defeat her motion.”
“The right hon. Lady ought to know that the interest rate will be set by the market, and that this—I say this as a former consumer credit Minister—is actually a great deal. People would not get an unsecured loan of this nature at the interest rates in the green deal. This will be a good deal for people on low incomes, in particular. Through the energy company obligation, which will be introduced with the green deal, we will be requiring energy companies to provide an estimated £1.3 billion a year of support for energy efficiency in our homes, including £540 million to fund energy saving improvements to around 230,000 low-income, vulnerable households every year.”
“As the independent regulator of the gas and electricity markets, Ofgem’s primary duty is to protect consumers, and it has consulted on proposals to improve consumer protection and competition in its retail market review. The Government have consulted on new powers for Ofgem to compel energy companies to provide redress to consumers who have lost out because of a regulatory breach.”
“The Government have consulted on how we can change the measure of fuel poverty so that it is more exact and so that we can ensure that we tackle the worst fuel poverty. The previous Government could not even measure fuel poverty properly. As regards ensuring that the big companies give a fairer deal, Ofgem’s retail market review is considering everything from standards of contact to improving billing and tariff simplification. Those and other measures will help people.”
“First, I thank the hon. Gentleman for all his work on this important issue. He has made a valuable contribution. We are raising the matter, because we take it very seriously. Ensuring that consumers have the right information so that they can switch to cheaper tariffs is very important.”
“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question, but we will take no lectures about helping small businesses. We have done a huge amount across government to help small businesses, and, as he should know, Ofgem is looking into the issue.”
“My hon. Friend will know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport and I have been looking into that issue, but as a former competition Minister in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills I am clear that independent competition authorities are critical to effective competition policy. I would not want to be seen to be putting undue political pressure on a valuable independent institution.”
“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his work on promoting renewable energy in his constituency and his county of Cornwall, particularly in respect of marine energy. I can reassure him that the Government will make decisions based on the evidence. We will crunch through the more than 4,000 responses we have had—an awful lot of evidence, including some substantial new evidence—and our decisions will reflect the evidence.”
“I congratulate the hon. Lady on asking three questions, but I will not anticipate the announcement that we will make shortly. We support onshore wind—we believe it is a cost-competitive renewable technology, and it has an important place in decarbonisation and in a secure energy supply.”
“I have to disappoint my hon. Friend. The fact that we are supporting the industry is one reason why investment has come forward in large numbers. The 6GW that have been consented and the 6.5GW in the planning system would not necessarily go ahead if there were dramatic cuts in subsidies.”
“I have to disappoint the right hon. Lady, because my Conservative colleagues and I are working very closely on this matter. Both Government parties support decarbonisation and understand the critical role that renewables can play, whereas under Labour renewable investment did not occur and we had one of the worst records in Europe. She will have to be patient, but we will make the announcement, and it will be a very good announcement.”
“Once again, the facts do not support the right hon. Lady’s case. There has been a large increase in investment in renewables in the past year, which has created more than 20,000 jobs, and confidence in the sector is actually extremely high. When we make our announcement, I believe we will see billions of pounds of investment coming forward.”
“The renewables obligation has succeeded in providing support worth about £2 billion a year to renewable electricity in the UK. Industry announcements over the last financial year amounted to renewables investments totalling £6.9 billion, which potentially will support more than 20,800 jobs. We plan to publish details of the additional investment arising from the RO banding review shortly.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and has been a champion of the offshore wind industry. I congratulate him on that. The draft energy Bill has been widely welcomed by many people in the offshore wind industry because they see that it contains the instruments needed. We are pressing ahead with the timetable in the White Paper that we published last July. I am grateful to the Energy and Climate Change Committee for how it has gone about is rapid pre-legislative scrutiny. We will look carefully at its report, and we hope to publish the full Bill in the autumn.”
“I agree with the right hon. Gentleman. It is very good news that jobs are being created. The story of onshore, offshore, the renewables industry and our energy policies generally is to bring forward new investment and jobs. We are proud of that, and will continue with that support.”
“The draft Energy Bill focuses on encouraging greater investment and competition in the energy market as we make the transition to a low carbon future. The provisions in the Bill are about removing barriers to entry and allowing all forms of low carbon generation to come forward and compete on a level playing field. In addition to the provisions in the draft Bill, Ofgem has consulted on liquidity proposals and the Government have issued a call for evidence regarding the availability of long-term contracts for independent generators.”
“Because Labour’s plan would not work. The critical factor for independent generators—the new competitors in the current and future markets—is liquidity in the futures market, not in the day-ahead market. Liquidity in the day-ahead market has increased significantly, and the pool proposal that the right hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint) has made would be about the day-ahead market. So we have already sorted that problem, and Ofgem is focusing on managing auctions for the futures markets, which is where the competition issue is.”
“The draft energy Bill is a fundamental shake-up of the electricity market, and it is widely recognised as such. That is why it has created such heated and interested debate. I have to say that I do not recognise the views the hon. Gentleman ascribes to independent generators. I have met groups of independent generators, and they welcome much of the Bill. They argued—and we listened—that more work needs to be done to ensure that finance is available, so we recently published a call for evidence to see whether we can make sure that the power purchase agreement market is as healthy as possible. That is another critical way in which we are trying to help competition.”
“Throughout the renewables obligation banding review and the comprehensive review of feed-in tariffs, I have had discussions with many stakeholders and with my officials and ministerial colleagues on subsidies for wind farm generators.”
“I do not agree with my hon. Friend’s last point, but I would say that any bullying tactics by developers are completely unacceptable, and I join him in condemning them. The wind industry generally is committed to a good standard of community consultation and to providing community benefit. If my hon. Friend would like to send me the details of what he raised with me, I will take them up with RenewableUK. I do not believe such practices are widespread or that they are a consequence of renewable subsidies, but they are unacceptable.”
“The UK green investment bank policy is one of a number of policies that together will support the Government’s green and growth objectives. The bank, funded with £3 billion over the three years to 2015, will tackle gaps in the financing of green infrastructure projects. It will operate to a “double bottom line” of both achieving green impact and making positive financial returns. The initial priority sectors for the bank are offshore wind, waste and recycling, energy from waste, non-domestic energy efficiency, and support for the green deal.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right: our energy infrastructure and climate change policies are very much part of our growth strategy, and are bringing forward serious investment. He is also right that SMEs play a critical role in this regard, particularly in respect of innovation and the supply chain that is developing in many of the new and existing markets that we are developing.”
“As the hon. Lady will know, a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department of Energy and Climate Change consultation that has now closed looked at policies to help such energy-intensive industries. My right hon. Friend the Business Secretary will introduce some of the proposals, and we hope they will cover a range of industries.”
“My Department is taking a number of steps to help consumers with energy bills. Programmes such as the carbon emissions reduction target, Warm Front, the green deal and the energy company obligation are helping to make more homes energy-efficient. The warm home discount provides direct help—worth £1.1 billion until 2015—to cut bills for 2 million low-income and vulnerable households. The voluntary agreement announced by the Deputy Prime Minister means suppliers will ensure that all consumers have good information on their supplier’s best tariff.”
“I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman has got his facts wrong. The support for renewable energy costs 6p a day per household, and in this financial year the warm home discount will result in 1 million of the poorest pensioners getting a discount of £130—so I have to say the hon. Gentleman is wrong.”
“Since my Department’s last Question Time we have published a draft Energy Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny, set out the next steps for the green deal, publishing the detailed plans and secondary legislation, and we have helped to broker an EU energy-efficiency directive. There is also decarbonising power generation, a new market for energy-efficiency and European leadership on international climate change—it is an ambitious agenda.”
“My hon. Friend will know that, ultimately, this is a commercial decision for the owners of Horizon Nuclear Power—RWE and E.ON—but we have been working with them to facilitate investors coming forward to talk to them. We are very optimistic that we will see the Horizon project sold to another consortium and that new nuclear build will continue.”
“The right hon. Lady is getting a name for inaccuracy on some of these points. Let me deal with the new issue that she has raised—the Department’s underspend. Some people would congratulate the Department on underspending—”
“She says £400 million, but I am afraid that she needs to look at the facts, because the real figure for underspend is £266 million. That is still a large underspend, but I have to tell her that £177 million of that comes from higher energy trading income from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s programme. So better performance by one of our non-departmental bodies is producing more money for the Treasury—I would have thought that she welcomed that.”
“I have good news to cheer up the hon. Gentleman. Under the warm home discount, 1 million of the poorest pensioners will get £130 off their bills in this financial year. Under the voluntary agreement negotiated by my Department and announced by the Deputy Prime Minister in April, the big six will ensure that customers who are getting the warm home discount are informed that they can move to the cheapest tariff, if they are not already on it, which will augment the benefit from the discount.”
“The hon. Gentleman will know that Ofgem is undertaking a retail market review that is considering standing charges. We expect its deliberations to be published in the autumn. Given that it is an independent regulator, I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will agree that I should not pre-judge its conclusions.”
“I strongly agree with my hon. Friend and pay tribute to the work she does in her constituency to promote energy efficiency and renewables. She mentions the CBI report and it is clear that the CBI’s director-general, John Cridland, is very supportive of the Energy Bill and our attempts to increase investment in energy infrastructure, which he sees as a key part of this Government’s growth policy.”
“I saw the press reports that made that allegation and I am afraid that I do not agree with them at all. The press article was trying to suggest that particular amounts of money that come from consumer bills to support the renewables industry was the top bit that would push people into fuel poverty. It was a very poor analysis and we completely reject it.”
“I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. The House recently debated the green economy, and Members on both sides of the House gave examples from their constituencies of big investments and job creation as a result of our policies and the green economy.”
“As we said earlier, work is under way on this. Ofgem, through its retail market review, is looking at tariff simplification, which is important. As my hon. Friend will know, since becoming Secretary of State, I have been pushing the idea of collective switching and collective purchasing, and simpler bills will be a big facilitator for that.”
“We are keen to hear from any LEP across the country. I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and his ministerial team work closely with LEPs. Across Government we want to support their work in promoting the green economy.”
“In the last 12 months, there have been approximately 270,000 photovoltaic installations registered on the microgeneration certification scheme database, against a forecast of just 35,000 installations when the scheme was launched in 2010. Moreover, having substantially reduced the cost of each installation to electricity bill payers, the coalition is now in a position to significantly expand the ambition of the feed-in tariffs scheme.”
“I am surprised the hon. Lady reaches that conclusion. Since the 21p tariff came in 10 weeks ago, there have been more than 26,000 installations with 86 MW of capacity, which is equivalent to the installation rate achieved in August 2011, when the tariff was at 43p. The installation rate in the period is 1.7 times what it was in the same period last year.”
“I am sure local authorities will look at that proposal, but the key thing is to ensure that our new, more stable and predictable regime supports the solar industry, as we believe it will. We need to ensure that the message goes out that the solar industry is back in business and on a sound footing. There will be many more solar installations compared with what happened under the solar installation regime we inherited from the Labour party.”
“The right hon. Lady seems to think that we should not listen to the industry, but I do. We are considering tweaking the start date for the next tariff reduction—if we change it, it will be a tweak, not a massive change. She needs to understand that the changes that we have consulted on and are introducing will bring stability and mean that we have solar power for the many, not the few.”
“The right hon. Lady started by saying that the industry will be laughing, but Paul Barwell, the chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, said in The Independent on 9 May 2012: “The current 21p subsidy can actually give a return up to 10 per cent, tax-free, index-linked, for 25 years, making it one of the most attractive investments around.” That is what the industry is saying. The Government will abide by all the procedures required by the House and lay the regulations when required.”
“The Deputy Prime Minister recently announced an agreement with energy suppliers to ensure that all consumers have good information on their supplier’s best tariff. This builds on previous actions by the Government to help people to control their bills, and complements Ofgem’s proposals in the retail market review to protect consumers. We are also encouraging consumers to harness their collective purchasing powers.”
“Thanks to the deal that we have negotiated and that the Deputy Prime Minister has announced, those pensioners in the hon. Lady’s constituency will be written to every year by their energy supplier and advised of the best tariff for them. Furthermore, because of the warm home discount for which this Government have legislated, 600,000 of the poorest pensioners in the country are getting a direct discount of £120 off their energy bills. That is real action.”
“My hon. Friend is right to pay tribute to the work of the Energy Saving Trust. It does a huge amount of work on providing information, advice and support to a whole range of people, particularly the most vulnerable, and I am sure that it will have heard her welcome comments.”
“I think the hon. Gentleman is mixing up the green deal with the action that we are taking to help people with their consumer bills. The warm home discount, which targets the 600,000 poorest pensioners, is one of the most effective ways of providing that help. Under the scheme proposed by Labour, some of the wealthiest pensioners would get the discounts, and I am afraid that that shows that it is no longer the party of the many.”