Speeches by Miliband.

“I do not think so. My strong view—and a big part of this is the work we have been doing on nature recovery with Steve as part of our plans—is that we can do clean energy infrastructure in a way that builds the infrastructure that we need and does so in a nature-positive way. Overall, it is important to remind people—I …”

“That is something I should take away, to give an answer that justifies the depth of the question. Overall, for years, people promised a land use framework. My colleague Steve Reed is actually delivering it, and that is very important. For years, people have talked about how we need to plan our energy system better. We …”

“To sum up, my fundamental question—and an important one for us all to ask—to anyone coming forward with proposals is, “What is the price and is it value for money?” People have raised questions about the lifespan of some of these projects. As Jeremy said, it is definitely something that we seek to take into account. I …”

“I don’t know; we will compare notes.”

“Part of the joy and challenge of my job is that often people will come to me and say, “I have the answer for you, and it does not require any Government funding.” I am like, “Hmm…” They say, “All it requires is a CfD of £150 per megawatt-hour.” And I am like, “Well, you know…” I am not saying that about this particular…”

“Indeed. Jeremy may want to add something, because I think he might have some previous experience on this. My position is that no technology should be ruled out. If it can be done in a value-for-money way, we should do it. For me, it is all about value for money. If it is value for money for the billpayer and taxpayer, …”

“I think it is fair to say there is a long history here.”

“I think there are various ways in which marine energy can play a role. It is less about setting a particular target but more about seeing the different ways, through the auction rounds, that we can support marine energy. Michael Shanks launched the industry-led marine energy taskforce on 16 June to consider the role of…”

“To the first part of your question, yes. However, on the second part, I think that we need to look in detail at this and work out the barriers and the potential. I will undertake to come back to you.”

“In auction round 5, we awarded some CfDs in Cornwall for geothermal. I know that the current UK geothermal potential is estimated to be between 170 MW and 2 GW, and I can tell you that one of the issues that I have asked our Science and Technology Advisory Council to look at is the potential role of technologies like g…”

“I do not think I would characterise it quite in the way that you suggest, but I acknowledge that we have got to make sure that path dependency—to use a really wonkish phrase—does not rule out or undervalue technologies that could be helpful in the future. Again, that is something that Jeremy and I discuss and are consc…”

“The point is that we have got to make this transition work in a way that is good for people’s standard of living. Take what we announced on EV charging and EV support: it is about saying, “We’re going to have to make this transition. It’s the right thing to do. It can be good for our manufacturers, because they can get…”

“It is right to say that the Government are in a battle with some people who want to upend this mission. It is really important to say that the public get this in a way that Richard Tice and Nigel Farage definitely do not. The public do want to see action on clean energy. Whether it is solar panels or the good jobs we a…”

“Yes.”

“I would say one thing—I hope I am not going to get into trouble for saying this—which is that we had an excellent discussion across Government about the whole EVs question. What you have seen, both on the 2030 mandate and on the recent announcement on demand support, has been a product of discussions across Government.…”

“This is the kind of difficult question you refer to the permanent secretary. Let me give some context. A bit like with Cabinet-level Committees, we do not tend to share the details of mission boards publicly. I will talk broadly, because it is important, and we have not really talked about the mission-led nature of thi…”

“We are all frightfully connected. Patrick Vallance always said to me that the covid taskforce had a great thing on its side, which was that it was a Prime Minister-led response to a national emergency. He always said to me that this needs to have the authority of the Prime Minister, which the mission does—both limbs of…”

“Oh, gosh.”

“I am sorry to disappoint you—or pleased to meet your expectations.”

“We obviously have a windfall tax in place, which has been playing an important role in raising revenue. There is a wider question that I think you are making reference to, which is about the balance between levies and public expenditure. You always have to be careful what you say, given that the Treasury is always watc…”