Speeches by Billington.

“Is that because there was a clear strategic direction that the markets were going to deliver, and over the intervening—how many years is it since we privatised the energy system?”

“If it is abated, that does not make the same economic sense, does it?”

“I am just going to ask one more question because I know I am being annoying, sorry. In that circumstance is there a risk that if you are paying for the cost of investment and not the amount of energy that you use that the bill disincentivises energy efficiency?”

“Okay. When you are talking about the investment cost—and it is the chunk of money that is on your bill to reflect the cost of investment—how different would that be from basically a big chunk of money to make the system work? It would still feel like a big chunk of money that you spend.”

“Forgive me, Professor, I know I do not know very much about this in comparison to you, but when I look at my energy bill and when we have been talking about network costs and policy costs and people’s usage, that is how it feels. It feels like I am paying that amount of money. If I spend any time thinking about it at a…”

“Do you have a proposal for what we should do as an alternative to that outcome?”

“Is that not what we effectively have with the network costs chunk plus your use on top of that?”

“I welcome the commitment to free apprenticeships for small and medium-sized enterprises if they take on under-25s, which was announced in the Budget, and I also welcome the commitment to apprenticeships in the hospitality sector. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that there will be a focus on coastal communities such as…”

“My right hon. Friend will acknowledge, as he already has done, the importance of stability for families and businesses across this country. What we have called fiscal headroom is frankly money for a rainy day, and it is fundamental to being able to maintain that stability—something that was a failure of the Conservativ…”

“I congratulate my right hon. Friend and, indeed, the Chancellor on making the decision to tax online gambling in particular. The fact that people effectively have a casino in their pocket destroys lives and families, and it is right that we send that strong signal, as well as make sure money is available to tackle the …”

“May I confirm that the right hon. Gentleman is then perfectly happy for children to continue to live in poverty while we try to reform the welfare benefit system?”

“I am interested to know whether the hon. Lady welcomes the fact that the youth guarantee will benefit hundreds of young people in the Ynys Môn constituency. It will give free support for apprenticeships for the under-25s. That will help small and medium-sized businesses that want to recruit and train young people in Yn…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“I am sure the Secretary of State would not necessarily like me to remind him that it is 16 years since the first COP he attended with me, which was significantly less successful than the one this year. I commend him for his great effort over that time in managing to demonstrate the UK’s leadership on climate change. Th…”

“I support my hon. Friend in his advocacy of new clause 29. The Minister mentioned that the Bill should be a floor on ambition, not a ceiling, and I am keen to seek reassurance on the climate duty, as I am sure my hon. Friend is. In particular, it is vital that local authorities can shape it locally, partly because they…”

“My right hon. Friend will be aware of the appalling environmental pollution incident at Camber Sands in East Sussex last week. A few days later, we also had huge sewage dumps in the seas around my constituency, leaving beaches in Ramsgate and Broadstairs effectively unusable. Not only do these incidents have appalling …”

“What rules need to change for that 8 GW to be achieved?”

“How else are we going to get to 8 GW, then?”

“I know that you were all present at the previous session. Bearing in mind what evidence we heard then, what prospects do you think we have of achieving the 8 GW of community energy by 2030?”

“Forgive me; I will ask one last question on that. Community energy advocates spend quite a lot of time saying, “We are all unique and special and different” and then, funnily enough, want something big and co-ordinated that is consistent for everybody, “and we want to achieve 8 GW, but we don’t want to be told to do it…”