I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman, who hits on the key point that this is about shifting the power in energy supply to give ordinary people a chance to say to the big six, “If you won’t give us a fair deal we can do this for ourselves in our local communities.”
Electric Corby is partly about enabling people to switch their energy provider, but it is wider and more ambitious than that. For example, it will involve an electric vehicle charging point infrastructure. I recently welcomed the shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna), to Corby to see those electric charging points and other innovations in my constituency. In Priors Hall, a major development of 5,000 new homes has just begun, and there is smart metering and electric charging points across the whole development.
We are trying to lead in Corby, but I am concerned about the potential impact of this Bill. I particularly support amendment 1, which has been ably championed by my hon. Friend the shadow Minister. In Committee, the Government indicated that they were supportive of the amendment. That was welcome, and it was on that basis that it was withdrawn at that stage. We have heard some very warm words from the Minister today. He and I have previously spoken in the Chamber about energy policy. I know that he tries to listen and respond to good debate, as in Committee, but it is disappointing to find that he cannot offer something more substantive to the House in respect of amendment 1.
The purpose of amendment 1 is to raise the feed-in tariff threshold to benefit co-operative and community energy suppliers. Currently, the feed-in tariff is for projects of under 5 MW. That means that renewable developments of over 5 MW have to participate in the new contracts for difference. I share the concern that contracts for difference will raise the barriers to entry for the community energy projects that Members in all parts of the House have said that they support. The need for a higher degree of technical knowledge is one such barrier to entry. The contracts will mean that smaller generators will receive lower market prices for their power. With the end of the renewables obligation, there will no longer be an incentive for suppliers to purchase renewable energy from independent suppliers.
For those reasons, the feed-in tariff threshold should be raised to above 5 MW. I agree with the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion that we should be ambitious and raise it further, but the amendment would allow us to raise it to apply to schemes of above 10 MW. That would give smaller renewables projects a clear and certain route to market and enable us to promote the community-owned renewables sector.