Speeches by White.

“We are a little hamstrung because the local power plan is coming out imminently. As I say, we recognise that we need to do more around community benefit. We have made it really clear that communities that host this infrastructure should directly benefit from it.”

“The local power plan will come out imminently, so more will come on that. I am sure that when the Secretary of State appears, he can give you the detail on that, but it is imminent. On how that will work, in terms of local groups getting involved in energy, we have talked about having a direct community benefit. Ryan, …”

“That is an excellent question—absolutely. As the Chairman said, we can hold two views that might almost appear to be conflicting. We know that when local infrastructure is proposed, support can drop for some of it. To go back to my answer about the community piece, that is an area that we have started work on, but we n…”

“I think there is absolutely more to do to make that clear.”

“If what you are saying, Chair, is that people want to tackle climate change and at the same time reduce their cost of living, I completely agree with you. People want both those things. We as a Government have to meet both of those needs: we need to make sure that we are leading the transition to a low-carbon Britain, …”

“That is an excellent question. My understanding is that, actually, in some areas—certainly in Hull—the experience has been slightly different. While some of the names might have been removed, some of the actions and support have continued. In the real world, is it taking climate change off the agenda? This is good for …”

“Ryan, you go with Secretary of State to the mayoral group, don’t you? We already have a local net zero delivery group that works with representatives not only of the LGA, but of councils across the country and of UK100 to look at actually what is happening. We are working through that as a delivery body, but we also ha…”

“If in a year’s time public attitudes are getting worse? I hope to goodness, I am not coming back with that. We are acting now. We are not waiting for that attitudes tracker to worsen. Things are changing constantly. The thing I have been really struck by is the amount of opportunities and positive stories that are out …”

“Generally on our communications strategies, we are looking at overall support, which you have referred to a couple of times, and making sure of support for our policies. That is a big collaboration, but we are making sure that our overall support is there adding to it. We are then looking at the different audiences, wh…”

“Just to add a couple of things on that, DEFRA is looking at the land use plan, which will look at making sure land is used most effectively. That will include a line with the energy spatial strategy at the same time to try to make sure we think more holistically around land use. That is exactly what we need to be doing…”

“I apologise—I was trying to make sure I remembered all five of those pillars. It is a test! I will tell you later about which lyrics from songs—but we can play that game later. What we have done with the Energising Britain report is we have looked at more—the call from the Climate Change Committee was for us to do more…”

“What a brilliant question. We have not really touched on nuclear. We are very fortunate to have Patrick Vallance as our nuclear Minister, who is doing a fabulous job of championing nuclear. We have a renaissance in nuclear. We are pushing on different fronts to make sure that, as part of our clean energy mix and also a…”

“I will look forward to that. In terms of the skills, you raise a really good point. We all want to learn from what has happened in the past when we have had energy transitions. We all know that the scars of those transitions are still on many communities up and down our country. We want to learn and not have any of tho…”

“That is a really good challenge. I was using the North sea as an example of where there will be energy systems still being used. It is a different form of energy. In Aberdeen it is whether it is going from oil to offshore wind and you have those pontoons side by side at the same time. It is how we can make sure that th…”

“I want us to move as fast as we can towards delivering on our target. I also want to make sure that we do things in a thoughtful way, and that we maximise the co-benefits for Britain. I have absolute faith in the Minister of State in MHCLG to do that.”

“I think climate change and biodiversity loss are two sides of the same coin. Many people have said that before, but clearly there is a strong integration—there is a symbiotic relationship, in many ways, between those two things. When we came into Government, there was a complaint from stakeholders that we were not work…”

“Hopefully, that will be soon. I feel very supported by my colleagues, including in other Departments where you might not expect as much—with the Department for Education, we are ensuring that climate is on the curriculum more and we will have the natural history GCSE.”

“It is a really good point. You talk about electric vehicles: we are now in a system where, if you are on the right tariffs and with the right technology, you can take advantage of those opportunities. We are exploring at pace how we can bring those opportunities and advantages to as many people as possible.”

“I feel very fortunate to have a Minister of State for Housing who I think previously sat in my job in Opposition, so has a strong personal commitment. As I say, I find ministerial colleagues incredibly helpful. We are looking forward to the future homes standards coming forward imminently.”

“I certainly feel I have strong support from my ministerial colleagues within other Departments. I work really closely with them, whether they are at DFT, DEFRA or MHCLG, and I have no reticence in saying that they feel as much commitment to this as I do. They feel it is cross-Government.”