My Lords, I am pleased that the noble Baroness was able to follow very closely what I must admit was a very complex issue. She has raised a number of questions. I shall attempt to answer as many as I can but, if I fail to answer them all, we will write to her.
The noble Baroness must accept that this Government have been prepared to look at what is good for both consumers and the industry. That is why these reviews are important. I make no apologies for the fact that if in my own role in the department I feel that something
needs to be revisited, I am very happy to do so. With these technologies being in their infancy, it is only right that we go over the issues. I am not dogmatic in my approach and would rather review a matter several times to get it right.
Perhaps the noble Baroness slightly missed the point that this Government are incredibly supportive of renewables being part of our energy mix. I have stood at the Dispatch Box on several occasions and have said that it is very important for our energy security that we have a range of energy mixes.
I shall attempt to respond to some of the questions that the noble Baroness raised. She must recognise that when we are using taxpayers’ money, we need the right balance between certainty, value for money and clarity for investment, and we need to respond to the market. We do not want to disadvantage any technology in the scheme of things, so when the noble Baroness says that we have many triggers for degression, it is also important to see that some technologies have reached a further stage of development than others. We do not want to exclude or disadvantage some of those that will have a longer lead time. Therefore, it may well be that there are a lot of triggers for a range of technologies, but I would rather be in that position at the moment than to disadvantage any technology that may need a longer lead time.
The noble Baroness asked why the number of applications was so low. I think that is an unfair comment. By and large, take-up has been relatively steady. Applications for non-domestic RHI may appear low but a greater interest is beginning to be shown. It is right that we address the issues behind the low take-up, and therefore this engagement with industry and other stakeholders is really important. I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness that that is crucial to the debate but she also asked whether degression would put investors off. I absolutely think that it will not. Adopting such measures places much greater certainty in the hands of investors. We have learnt from other schemes not to repeat those mistakes again. We have tried to put mechanisms into place that support the longer-term aim of what we are trying to deliver. Of course, we still have plenty of learning to do. There is no doubt that we have to put our hands up to the fact that we may not have got it exactly right, but at least we are going in the right direction.
4.30 pm