Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

My hon. Friend is right that network costs account for about a fifth of the average household bill. Of course, the Energy and Climate Change Committee, which he chairs, is looking into this issue and has taken evidence on it. We look forward to receiving his report. If one looks at an historical analysis of network costs as a proportion of energy bills, they have been coming down steeply since privatisation. We obviously want Ofgem to continue to bear down on them, and our regulatory regime is one of the strongest in the world.

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Mr Andrew Robathan (South Leicestershire) (Con)

2. What estimate he has made of the proportion of electricity demand that will be met by renewable energy in 2015 compared with 2010. ( 907443 )

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The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Matthew Hancock)

We have doubled the amount of renewable energy from 6.8% of electricity in 2010 to more than 14% of electricity generation.

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Mr Robathan

So it is true: this is the greenest Government ever. Will my right hon. Friend tell us what proportion of that electricity is generated by onshore wind? Can he confirm that onshore wind is the most mature, least expensive, and most efficient form of renewable energy, and is actually pretty popular?

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Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)

The Minister knows that some Liberal Democrat voices in the Government are keen on this being a green Government, but the fact is that there are climate change deniers in his own party in other Departments. Every time wind power is brought in, it is knocked down by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The Minister knows there is a subversive element in the Government who hate anything to do with renewable energy.

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Matthew Hancock

I know my hon. Friend has a concern about solar panels being put in inappropriate places. There are appropriate places for solar to go, especially on roofs and in brownfield sites. That is, of course, a matter for a strong planning system, in which those local decisions are rightly made, but that does not take away from the fact that we have so much more renewable energy than we did just five short years ago.

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Amber Rudd

Solar is an essential part of the renewable energy mix; the hon. Gentleman is entirely right. We continue to look at this under the community energy strategy, and hope to develop plans to help deliver the sorts of projects he mentioned.

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Sir Gerald Kaufman

Given that energy efficiency is an important weapon for combating climate change, and given that it also lowers the energy bills of householders —particularly those on low incomes—has not the Government’s institutional meddling with energy efficiency structures not only wasted a huge amount of taxpayers’ money but actually made people on lower incomes pay more? Is not the Secretary of State’s green deal nothing but a pack of cards that contains only jokers?

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Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

Since our last Department of Energy and Climate Change orals, we have seen significant progress for consumers on switching, energy prices and energy efficiency. Energy firms have responded to my challenge and halved the time it takes to switch, from five weeks last year to 17 days now. That is helping people to switch to get big savings on their energy bills, as the extra competition we have backed is now seeing bills being not just frozen, but cut. Figures to the end of November show that the energy companies obligation and the green deal have delivered new boilers, windows and insulation to more than 1 million homes, four months ahead of our March 2015 target. In introducing to the House today tough new regulations to require landlords to ensure that their properties meet minimum energy-efficiency standards, we aim over the next three years to help about 1 million private sector tenants enjoy lower energy bills and warmer homes.

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Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

The global calculator published by the Department last week found that reducing our meat consumption is essential if we are to reduce our contribution towards greenhouse gases. Everyone from the United Nations downwards has for many years been talking about the contribution of the livestock sector to global emissions. His Department has always ignored this issue, so I urge him now to take action and to tell us what he is doing to encourage people to reduce their consumption.

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Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat)

I think that is a little harsh. My Department published the calculator, so far from ignoring this, we are putting into the public domain not just a UK 2050 calculator but, having helped 20 other countries with their calculators, now a global calculator. It shows that people’s lifestyles—not just their meat-eating habits, but their transport and so on—all have an impact on climate change. The calculator enables people to look at the types of choices we may need to make in the future.

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Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)

T3. The Children’s Society estimates that in Coventry South 3,200 children are living in families trapped in energy debt. It has been calling on the Government to increase support for those families by changing the Department of Energy and Climate Change strategy and policy statement to include families with children as a vulnerable group. That will ensure that Ofgem and energy companies do their part to give families the support they need when they fall behind with their energy bills. Will the Minister give that some consideration? ( 907470 )

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