Speeches by Miliband.

“There is quite a lot in there, Barry.”

“I think you have made the points that you wanted to get across. I am totally respectful of that and you have put them on the record. Obviously we will look at the letters and the information you provide.”

“Let me say something by way of opening on nuclear, and then come to your questions. I want to put on record that we see nuclear as an important part of the electricity mix going forward. When I was Secretary of State last time, I wanted to drive forward nuclear. We published a list of sites. I think it is important, an…”

“We share the spirit of ambition behind that goal. I want to put that on the record. If I can be diplomatic about this, it is perhaps easier for Governments to say, “Here is our number for 2050,” without really having a plan to get there. That is what slightly concerns me about some of what the last Government said. I t…”

“Yes, frankly, I am. I said at the opening—no problem about you not being here for it—that I am old enough to remember when David Cameron was the Conservative party leader in opposition. His slogan was—I remarked on this to him when I saw him a few months ago—“Vote blue, go green”. I think that healthy competition on cl…”

“As I said at the outset, an important thing to underline and talk about is that I think there is broad consensus for this and support for the clean energy transition, partly because people recognise the scale of the threat, but also because people recognise the reality of our exposure to fossil fuels. That is what all …”

“There are different ways of talking about it. Net zero is quite a nerdy term but, as you know, that is my Department’s job: to be nerdy. But there are different ways of talking about this. There is a strange thing about this, which is that I think Westminster sometimes underestimates the extent to which the public gets…”

“The important thing to understand about this—and this is the narrative that I use about the first and second limb of our mission—is that this is right for future generations but it is also right for current generations. Think about the issue of transport: people are exposed to what will happen to oil prices and we have…”

“I can write to you on the specifics around the carbon price. The important thing about the NESO report is what it shows about the potential for lower bills. I know you had Fintan before your Committee, but I can write to you about the carbon price.”

“I will not endorse these assumptions in the way you are suggesting, but what I will say to you is that we can definitely achieve 2030 clean power in a way that is good for business. If you think about the response of industry right across the board to the document that we produced in December, whether it is in manufact…”

“We work with NESO all the time on these issues. We work hand in glove with NESO, not just on modelling but on all of these questions, because they have a crucial role in the system and they have a crucial role in helping us to deliver clean power. But I have to be honest with you: the worst thing for business in the la…”

“Are you talking about where levies are—”

“Well, that is definitely something that we are embarked upon and I covered it earlier. These are difficult questions. On the issue of electricity prices, I think the potential, both for business and for families, of clean power by 2030 is giving some certainty to business and others—giving that security that frankly th…”

“The reality is that the best thing we can do in the shorter term is to work with the companies to make sure there is proper help for people. We have a warm home discount in place for some of the most vulnerable. Then you get to issues like energy efficiency and insulation, which can make a difference, and solar batteri…”

“We always look at these issues, and obviously there are direct impacts on public expenditure and other implications. We continue to keep under review the scale of the warm home discount, which is our current measure for this, and the group that gets helped by the warm home discount, and we are always looking for ways—t…”

“The way I think about this is, to take the heat pump grant for example, it is not a means-tested scheme so there is universal help available. We want to do more to develop the financing offer for the able-to-pay market, working with the banks and others, and that is something that will be part of our warm homes plan la…”

“I absolutely think a social tariff is something that we need to look at. Different people mean different things by a social tariff. We have a social tariff in its infancy, if you like, through the warm home discount, but I definitely think that part of what we need to be examining the case for and the ability for us to…”

“It is very much part of the discussions we are having about how we can co-operate for mutual benefit on these issues around energy. Clearly we have interconnectors in place, which are part of the co-operation. If you go back to something like CCS, there are big opportunities for European co-operation. We are part of NS…”

“I have followed quite a lot of the very interesting questioning you have done of NESO and of Emma Pinchbeck on these issues, and I will try to set this out as clearly as I can. It is a complex area. I think this 47% can be a little bit misleading, because the extent you get the benefits of cheaper of renewables does no…”

“In a way this was my answer to Bradley earlier. The Nesta report puts it quite well. There is a world where you transfer all the levies to public expenditure. No doubt all of us in our fantasy world would like that to happen. It is billions of pounds of costs. I do not think it will surprise the Committee if I say that…”