22:49 Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)

We are faced with the daunting prospect of a giant wind farm off Dorset’s coast. Navitus Bay is a joint venture between two foreign energy companies: EDF and Eneco. Together, they formed Navitus Bay Development Ltd, which will hereafter be known as the developer. As with every infrastructure project of national significance, the proposals have been examined in depth by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate. Its recommendations have been passed to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and a decision is due by 11 September.

The purpose of tonight’s debate is to impress on the Government the contentious nature of the wind farm and how many people are opposed to it. I am most grateful that the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom), is in her place and I welcome her to her role.

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23:05 Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)

For those Dorset Members who were here in the previous Parliament, the issue dominated our lives. I looked this afternoon at the number of times I have raised the issue. I did so first on 12 July 2011, when the former Member for Eastleigh, Chris Huhne, was the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. I spoke again on 4 July 2012, 19 November 2013 and 5 December 2013. I posed written questions on 11 June 2014. I raised it at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee with the then Secretary of State on 19 January this year, and mentioned it as recently as 11 June 2015.

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23:10 The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has set out the key aims of her Department: keeping the lights on, powering the economy, and keeping bills low for families and businesses. The achievement of those aims will require a robust energy strategy, and will, in turn, depend on a broad energy mix for electricity generation, including new nuclear, gas, carbon capture and storage, renewables, and other relevant technologies. We will approach the United Nations climate change conference in Paris with both ambition and pragmatism. I know that energy infrastructure projects of all sorts can have real impacts on local communities, but such projects can also bring real benefits. Finding the right balance between impacts and benefits is a key issue for the Department when it makes its decisions.

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