Energy Bill [HL]

This has been yet another challenging and interesting debate. I notice that the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, has gone for fear of being lynched by the officials behind me. Or perhaps he has gone to speak on the first amendment still being considered on the parliamentary voting systems Bill. We will miss him, of course. I thought that at one point he was probably in the wrong Chamber, but all his views are valuable. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, that the noble Lord, Lord Judd, made a passionate speech—as you would expect from someone who feels very passionately about this matter. I personally thank him for his kind comments. It is a great shame that the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, is not here. He has challenged me to a game of tennis, and my fear is that he is practising in order to try to beat me. That may be his excuse for not being here, but he made a very good speech at Second Reading. The noble Lord, Lord Deben, comes to this issue with great experience of local authorities, and I am grateful for the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, on this subject. I should be interested to see the report to which the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Liverpool referred. As he rightly said, the north-west is energy rich. We should be tapping into that, and I am delighted to hear that Liverpool is making strides within the local authority. Every person in this room—not everyone perhaps, but most of us—is looking to drive carbon reduction in every way. We are committed to it. We feel strongly and passionately about it. We want to see it happen, and we want to see it happen urgently. That is the strand of this debate. Regarding the Green Deal, which is really what we are here to debate, our initial research revolved mainly around how local authorities could buy into this programme. It does two things. First, research shows that local authorities are among the most trusted when it comes to people’s homes. They have become good exponents of the Green Deal. By working closely with some of the building merchants and others, local authorities will be able to sell the Green Deal, because they will be trusted, and can advise on it. A definite incentive will be introduced for local authorities. If at some point the local authorities are not seen to be buying into the Green Deal—which I think is highly unlikely, because there will be great financial benefits for local authorities in this—we must bring in some form of regulation, where possible, within the remit of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, given that we are not the department that is responsible for local authorities. We must encourage a greater take-up. Our initial findings—I think that the right reverend Prelate said as much—are that there is a big take-up from local authorities, they are enthusiastic about the Green Deal and they want to participate vigorously. It is true that I have ““Resist”” written in my briefing notes against every single amendment, and it may come as a surprise to hear that, having heard the arguments for the Energy Bill, we are going to consider inserting, through Amendment 31, a new clause under which local authorities will be required to produce a sustainable energy plan to help in rolling out the Green Deal. We have therefore considered the matter but the early indications are that we do not need to give local authorities greater encouragement. Localism, decentralising and investing power in local authorities to act are part of this coalition’s philosophy. Therefore, it would be wrong for us to impose on them top-down regulation, referred to by the right reverend Prelate, to carry out something when we do not yet know the extent to which they will have to carry it out. Yes, they have carbon commitments; yes, we must hold them to those carbon commitments; and yes, we believe that we have found a product that will encourage them to hold to their carbon commitments. If they do not, we will take the action within our remit to ensure that that takes place, working very closely with other departments that can provide support for this, as we have been doing throughout this process. I thoroughly support what the noble Lord, Lord Judd, said. Our war on carbon is fundamental to the Green Deal and that is why we largely have consensus in this Committee. Therefore, I invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.