Speeches by Young.

“On a similar note, does the Committee Chair agree that the long delays in assessing people for neurodivergence is contributing to greater mental ill health? While people are waiting, they are not being properly supported and do not feel that they have the necessary understanding of themselves to be able to move forward…”

“I would just like to apologise to the Minister for my over-enthusiasm earlier in extolling the virtues of my area. I would also like to ask her to visit my constituency to see the opportunities for herself and to discuss with me the barriers that we face.”

“Could the assistance for areas with high electricity distribution costs scheme, which socialises the high cost of distributing electricity in northern Scotland, be a model for dealing with the declining number of people using the gas grid?”

“Those ones who are left behind are likely to be the poorest in society, because they cannot afford to move.”

“You have extended the green gas support scheme to 2030, but that suggests that you do not see a future beyond that?”

“I want to focus on something slightly more niche. As heating goes electric, what do you see as the future of the green gas levy and green gas support scheme?”

“But if you have a variable supply, such as wind, then it will sit behind a bottleneck most of the time, but at some point you will have electricity coming in from other sources to an area.”

“Going back to the first part of my question, will energy consumers end up paying the higher network cost for those?”

“Turning now to data centres, there is an interesting thing in the Ofgem consultation that says around 50 GW of data centres have been identified, and most of them are likely to receive an offer. However, at the moment—or back in February—our peak electricity demand was 45 GW, so that is obviously a massive increase. Is…”

“I accept that you have to connect what is already there, but are you confident in your projections for the future? The network is being invested in not just for what is there at the moment, but for what is going to be there in the future. I will come to a specific example in a minute.”

“So are you confident that you are not at risk of building too much network?”

“It is clear that investing in the grid helps to reduce bills in the medium term, but in the short term, we saw in the recent price cap, they went up by £66 a year and that partially offset the decrease in policy costs. The Government are tackling wholesale costs and have the levers they need for policy costs. Should th…”

“So if AAHEDC is not a particularly good model for that, how about for socialising the high costs of distributing electricity from areas where you have high renewable generation? You have said that you are not going to pursue zonal pricing as a way of tackling that.”

“With prices doubling or tripling, a 97-year-old constituent cannot afford her next bill and another family has no hot water. Reporting price gouging to the CMA will not help them now, so what support will the Government give those above the lowest income thresholds who cannot afford the next delivery, and what will Min…”

“Whereas the Balanced Pathway is 450,000 plus.”

“It is 450,000, including new homes.”

“Yes, that is what I was saying.”

“The heat batteries.”

“Okay. Those other forms that are coming up are not covered by the Warm Homes Plan. They are just coming up spontaneously by people who can afford to pay for them.”

“I want to talk about heat pump targets, because the Warm Homes Plan has a target of 450,000 heat pumps to be installed annually by 2030, including new-builds. The Seventh Carbon Budget Balanced Pathway envisaged 450,000 plus an estimated 200 new-build homes. The first question is: do you think the revised target of 450…”