The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)

In the transformation to a green economy, low-carbon industries will grow, while other sectors will face significant challenges from increased energy prices. There could be significant transitional costs in the near term, but those could be manageable, with targeted Government action. We have committed to announcing in the autumn a package of measures to reduce the impact of Government policy on electricity costs for energy-intensive manufacturers whose international competitiveness is most affected by our energy and climate change policies.

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Anas Sarwar

Ernst and Young’s latest survey found that only 8% of renewable energy professionals said that they were optimistic that the Government would establish the conditions for success in the next 12 months and that only 14% of those surveyed expected significant growth and new jobs, which is a decrease from last November’s figure of 65%. Is it not clear that the Government are undermining confidence in growth in this important sector and are costing real jobs at a difficult time for our economy?

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Vince Cable

The renewable energy sector will, of course, be given confidence and clarity as a result of the electricity market review, which my colleague the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change launched this week, and it will be given further confidence by the investments of the green investment bank, which will take shape in the coming months.

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Vince Cable

Tidal power may well have an important role to play in the long-term development of renewables and that is why it is one of the components of the new technology innovation centre that will focus on renewable energy.

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Vince Cable

The answer to that question will be included in the green economy road map that will be announced at the end of this month. It involves a process of collaboration across Government by my Department, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in discussion with business and trade unions that will provide a consensus framework within which such decisions can be pursued.

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Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)

The pan-Humber local enterprise partnership is now up and running and it has recently put in a bid for a local enterprise zone across the Humber, which will be based around the renewables sector. As a result, the area covered by that potential enterprise zone is quite large. Will the Minister give an assurance that its size—and the need for it to be of that size given that it will be structured around the renewable energy industry—will be taken into account?

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Mike Crockart (Edinburgh West) (LD)

The Secretary of State will be aware of the recent announcement in Edinburgh by the climate change Minister of £20 million to be channelled into marine energy. Does he agree that the green investment bank could play a key role in this exciting sector and could do that best by being located in Edinburgh near to the hub of this developing sector?

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