Michael Shanks MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 10 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  We are making great progress—this will be a good day. Clause 2 is straightforward. It ensures that Great British Energy will serve the public as an independent company and operate in the same way as any other UK company, that it will not have any special status, immunity or privilege normally associated with the Crown, and that its property will not be seen as property of the Crown. It will be subject to exactly the same legal requirements as all other companies. That is in line with the vision we had for Great British Energy from the beginning: that it should be operationally independent and an agile market player. We will ensure that it remains that way. Question put and agreed to. Clause 2 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 3 Objects

• 10 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  They cut more than £100 million last year to plug gaps in their own budget. If we are looking at energy efficiency, the right hon. Gentleman could look closer to home at what his own Government in Scotland are doing. To return to the Bill, I want to address both paragraphs in the Liberal Democrats’ amendment 10. First, the new object proposed in paragraph (e) would mean that Great British Energy’s objects included facilitating and participating in emergency home insulation programmes. Several of my hon. Friends have pointed out that although those programmes are incredibly important—I will come in a moment on to what the UK Government are already doing on the issue—it is important to detach the Bill from every other part of our energy policy. Although I totally understand the perspective that says, “These issues are important. Let’s put them on the face of a Bill to say so,” it is really important to say that the Bill itself does matter. This is about setting up and delivering the Great British Energy company. It is not the answer to every single part of the energy system. There are places where we are already moving forward on home insulation programmes, such as the warm homes fund, and it would be more appropriate to talk about those matters in that connection. That is not to downplay the importance of the issue. As a Government, we are committed to taking bold action. Within the first 100 days, my colleague the Minister for Energy Consumers, my hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Miatta Fahnbulleh), has outlined the work that we will do on this. The warm homes plan that we have announced is the most ambitious such plan ever. It will be implemented from the spring, delivering cleaner, cheaper energy in the process and ensuring that people, particularly in those low-income households where fuel costs already account for a disproportionate amount of income, can spend less money on them because their home is insulated and warm. That is a right that everyone should have.

• 10 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill (Third sitting) · Hansard source

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  For the reasons I have already outlined, that is implicit in the policy; it is why we are doing it. I think the shadow Minister agreed in response to one of my hon. Friends that this is a useful approach to reducing bills, and the push towards green energy is important.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  I think a few of us have.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  I am also a member of the GMB.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Grid Capacity · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right to highlight those issues. The connections queue, in particular, is a huge challenge, with more than 700 GW waiting to join it. The last Government did some work to establish how the queue could be prioritised, and we will now implement that, but we need to go further. It is clear that by 2030 we will need to build four times as much new transmission network as has been built since 1990. This is a project to rewire the entire country, to improve the current connections availability, and to work with everyone, including the new national energy systems operator, on the road map towards 2030.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Grid Capacity · Hansard source

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  We are halving the development time for new transmission infrastructure through reforms of planning, supply chains and other areas, delivering the grid capacity that is needed to achieve clean power by 2030 and meet a doubling of electricity demand by 2050.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Grid Capacity · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right to draw attention to the importance of community energy projects throughout the country. We want to see many more of them, but we have inherited a grid that needs significant upgrading, and we are now working apace to ensure that that happens. Part of the work that I have been doing with National Grid and others involves trying to identify the next steps that are needed to shorten the connections queue, and also to make it more affordable for smaller community projects to connect. There is an important role for partnership as well, with some of the bigger renewables projects giving part of their connections queues to smaller ones, and that is already happening in some parts of the country. There is no doubt that there is much more to do, but we are, as I have said, working apace to try to move this forward after 14 years of inaction.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Energy Security · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the hon. Gentleman’s question—which I must say is somewhat of a surprise. I will absolutely meet him to discuss that. We have been clear that any technologies can be part of the solution and, if that can be part of the picture, I will meet him to discuss the options and the technology more generally.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Energy Security · Hansard source

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  The energy shocks of recent years have laid bare the exposure of our energy system to the international fossil fuel market. That is why we have started a mission to reach clean power by 2030, to end that reliance and ensure that the British people never again go through the sort of cost of living crisis that they have faced in recent years under the Conservatives.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Energy Security · Hansard source

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  I completely agree. The only way to permanently protect hard-working families and businesses from the high energy bills from which many are still suffering is to get ourselves off our reliance on the volatile fossil fuel markets. That is why we are rolling out at pace and at scale the clean power necessary to do so, which not only gives us energy security but creates good jobs, brings down bills and helps us to tackle the climate crisis.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Energy Security · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that incredibly important question. Community energy has so many benefits in our energy mix, including giving communities a stake in our energy future. We also know that there are many social and economic benefits that come from that. We are committed to our local power plan, which will deliver investment in community-owned projects. Great British Energy will have a key role to play in supporting communities, capacity building and in that initial funding to help them deliver these projects.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Energy Security · Hansard source

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  I am always happy to have meetings with any right hon. and hon. Members across the House on a range of issues, so I will take that away. The evidence suggests that undergrounding is five to 10 times more expensive and that actually it can have more of a damaging impact on nature and natural habitats than pylons. The important thing with all of this is that this is nationally important structure, which is necessary for us to get to the targets that we want to get to. I know that the hon. Gentleman takes that seriously, and I will meet him and others, but we have been clear as a Government that we will build this infrastructure if it is necessary.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  I will give credit to the Conservative Government on one thing: they were very good at making grand announcements. On delivery, however, they were much poorer. Looking at a whole range of things—carbon capture being a very good example—they had lots of warm words but no delivery whatsoever. On nuclear, they had lots of warm words but no delivery whatsoever. In 14 years, how many nuclear power stations were built under the Conservative party? None. We will get on with doing the work.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that in the three and a bit months that we have been in government we have moved at pace to deliver the largest renewables auction in history and to make last week’s announcement on carbon capture. We are working through the next stages of the process at pace, and we will have further announcements in the weeks ahead.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question. She is absolutely right to say that, in order for us to meet our 2030 ambitions, we will need a whole range of different options. Community energy is a critical part of that, helping to deliver energy security and lower bills. Crucially, it also gives communities a stake in the energy future. That is why one of Great British Energy’s five objectives is to support the delivery of a local power plan, which puts local communities, combined authorities, local authorities and others in the driving seat in restructuring our energy economy. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend and others to discuss this issue further.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  The latest contracts for difference round secured a record 131 renewable electricity projects across Great Britain. This will deliver a total capacity of 9.6 GW, enough to power the equivalent of 11 million homes. The Energy Secretary will continue to work with industry to explore how the contracts for difference scheme, and other energy policies, can be expanded even further.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  I could be wrong, but I think the right hon. Gentleman previously said that his own Government’s plans on onshore wind in England were not the right approach to take. I agree with him, which is why we lifted the onshore wind ban. The reality is that whereas the previous Government used to talk the talk on climate action, we are the ones now delivering—and delivering an energy system fit for the future.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  This is the whole point about the Conservative Government, and it is why we have inherited such an economic mess: they made a series of announcements, with absolutely no funding to back them up. As you would expect, Mr Speaker, I pay close attention to the Conservative party conferences, and the hon. Gentleman made a very astute point, which I am happy to repeat for the benefit of Hansard and the House: “After 14 years of Conservative Government, we are now in a position where it’s more difficult to build critical infrastructure than it was when we came into power”. I could not have put it better myself.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  I was not aware when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State changed the titles of the ministerial portfolios that we had moved away from having a Minister for consultation, but it seems that all the hon. Gentleman was doing in his time in office was launching consultations. We are going to get on with delivering and we are moving at pace on the whole of the electricity system, including on nuclear, and delivering on the things that he failed to do.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Batteries will play an important part in the short-duration storage required for the energy system we are building for the future. It is a question of balance. Communities will be engaged in the consultation process, and I will be convening a roundtable with providers of battery technology and other short-duration storage in the next few months to learn both from projects that have worked well and from projects on which we could do better in future. I will happily share any information from that with my hon. Friend.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. A similar point has been raised by many hon. Members across the House. This issue affects areas right across the country. We are doing what we can at the moment to prioritise the connections queue, so that the most important projects, or those most able to be delivered, can move forward. There is much more that we can do on that, but, fundamentally, we need to build much more network infrastructure in the first place so that we can speed up and reduce the cost of these connections for schemes such as the one he mentions.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that that issue is holding back projects across the country, which is why we have tackled it from day one. We are attempting to release network capacity, which can then be reallocated to accelerate the connection of viable projects. There is a lot of work to do, and we are building on what the previous Government did to prioritise the queue and to build the necessary infrastructure that should have been built over the past 14 years.

• 5 Sept 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  I have said that I do not have time. The hon. Gentleman gave a speech in which he raised a number of points, and I am happy to come back to him at another time. Community energy also reduces pressures on the transmission grid and the need for expensive investment, so community ownership will be critical. Great British Energy will deliver a step change in investment in local and community energy projects, putting local authorities and communities at the heart of the energy transition. Finally, I will address a few points on devolution, which was raised by the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens, the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon). Great British Energy is intended to support all parts of the United Kingdom, and will help to ensure that every part of this country has a role to play in delivering our energy independence. Since we came into government, we have been engaging regularly with the devolved Governments, on this Bill and a range of other issues, to reset the relationships with them. I hope that soon the devolved Governments will indicate their support for the Bill by passing motions of legislative consent. One of the Government’s five driving missions is to make Britain a clean energy superpower, and at the heart of that mission is Great British Energy. This is a bold idea, overwhelmingly backed by the British people—not only by people who voted Labour, but by people who voted SNP, people who voted Conservative and even people who voted Reform. Surprisingly, there were people who voted for those parties. This is an idea that has the public’s support. It will speed up the delivery of the clean energy that we need. It will deliver the next generation of good jobs, with strong trade unions, helping to re-industrialise all parts of our nation. It will protect family finances. It will learn the lessons of the past and allow the British people to reap the rewards of this transition. I urge the House to support the Bill and bring a fully operational Great British Energy one step closer to reality. I commend the Bill to the House. Question put, That the amendment be made. The House proceeded to a Division.

• 5 Sept 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  May I begin by thanking right hon. and hon. Members who have participated in this extremely wide-ranging debate this afternoon? I particularly pay tribute to all Members across the House who made their maiden speech in this debate. Thankfully, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) has already run through all the constituency names, so I do not need to do that again. However, I do want to highlight specifically some of the really emotional contributions that we heard from hon. Members, particularly my hon. Friends the Members for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) and for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran) and the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Liz Jarvis), who spoke so passionately, as many did, about their pride in their communities and the importance of this moment and this decisive decade in tackling irreversible climate change. There will come a point in this Parliament when we will not have debates that are dominated by maiden speeches, and I will really regret that, because every time I sit here I learn a lot more about the country in which we live. I thank all those Members for sharing their communities with us this afternoon. This has been a thorough and interesting discussion about the principles behind this Bill and the establishment of Great British Energy. The UK faces immense challenges, from energy insecurity and our over-reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets to the cost of living crisis and climate crisis. This Government are determined to address those challenges with clean energy being a key part of the solution. Other countries have already seized the opportunity of publicly owned energy generation companies, which has left Britain behind. Unlike previous Governments, this Government are committed to the benefits of public ownership in the UK, and we want UK citizens and taxpayers to own parts of our infrastructure, too. Great British Energy will drive clean energy deployment, boost energy independence and generate benefits for all parts of the United Kingdom. It will deliver for the British people, creating good jobs, delivering profits and demonstrating international leadership.