Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Clean Power by 2030

Tuesday 18 March 2025 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 4 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Secretary of State intends to visit Community Energy Barnet in north London to discuss community energy projects.
  • The Secretary of State responded to concerns about Drax's practices, mentioning a previous statement by the Under-Secretary regarding the issue.
  • The Secretary of State supports the Acorn project at St Fergus and plans to make decisions about it during the spending review in June.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Dan Tomlinson Lab Chipping Barnet
Climate Energy
Context

The questioner seeks to highlight the role of community energy in the clean power transition, referencing a specific project in north London.

Question

Does the Secretary of State agree that community energy has a vital role to play in the transition to cleaner and greener power? Will he accept an invitation to come to my constituency in north London to visit Community Energy Barnet, which is working on one of the largest community energy projects in the country?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

I always like visiting north London, and I would very much like to accept an invitation from my hon. Friend. He makes a really serious and important point about community energy. If we look at Germany and Denmark, we see that they have done much better on community energy than us. Great British Energy has an important role to play in this, and we will say more about that in the coming weeks.

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Q2 Oliver Dowden Con Hertsmere
Energy Environment
Context

The questioner raises concerns about Drax's practices, specifically regarding the cutting down of old-growth forests for power generation.

Question

Does the Secretary of State share my concern about reports of persistent misconduct by Drax, regarding cutting down old-growth forest and burning it at its power station? To be clear, this is a company that chops down pristine forest, ships it halfway across the world to burn it in the United Kingdom and claims that it is sustainable. Will he look again at the large amounts of subsidies that have been approved by this Government for that company?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

I do not know whether the right hon. Gentleman, for whom I have great respect, was present when the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), made a statement on precisely that issue. On the impact on bills, he will be delighted to know that under the new arrangements that this Government agreed, there has been an absolute transformation in the scale of subsidy to Drax; it will be halved. There is also a windfall tax when its profits go above a certain level, which I am sure the right hon. Gentleman is in favour of, and there are much higher standards of sustainability.

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Q3 Perran Moon Lab Camborne and Redruth
Immigration NHS Climate
Context

The MP criticises the Conservative party for abandoning various sectors and joining climate change deniers, contrasting this with the government's recognition of the triple benefits of the 2030 clean power goal.

Question

The Conservative party abandoned the economy, the NHS, the justice system and immigration, and now it is joining its Reform collaborators and other climate change deniers in the dunce’s corner. Does the Secretary of State agree that, unlike this Government, who recognise the triple benefit of the 2030 goal—energy security, a transition to renewables, and job creation—the Conservative party has no solutions for 21st century Britain?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

My hon. Friend should not be so shy and retiring. He makes a really important point. I listened to the interim shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie), on the radio this morning. He made net zero 2050 sound like a target dreamed up by me, but it is not. It was Theresa May, the former Conservative Prime Minister, who legislated for net zero by 2050. The hon. Member was her Parliamentary Private Secretary at the time—he was supposed to be the man implementing it. She set the target because it was the right thing to do, so that we can have cleaner home-grown energy, get the jobs, and protect future generations.

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Q4 Seamus Logan SNP Aberdeenshire North and Moray East
Climate Energy
Context

The MP inquires about the Acorn project's progress and seeks an updated timescale for its approval.

Question

The plans for a green generator at the Peterhead power station in my constituency are shovel-ready, but they depend on approval for the Acorn project at St Fergus. On 12 November last year, the Minister for Industry stated in response to a question from me that more information would be available on the track 2 projects “in the coming months.” Given that four months have passed, can the Secretary of State provide an updated timescale and outline what the next steps will be?

Answer from The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Ed Miliband)

I support the Acorn project; it is really important. For reasons that the hon. Member will understand, the right time to make decisions will be at the spending review in June.

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