Lords
Debate
15 September 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, in opening this group of amendments on AI infrastructure and community energy I will move my Amendment 185N and speak also to Amendment 185P. The simple truth is that AI’s energy and water demands are outpacing our development of policies to regulate AI’s energy and water usage. AI’s expec…
My Lords, it was right to bring these amendments forward; they are important considerations on the future of AI and community energy. I thank all those who have spoken and broadly supported the amendments—the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, and the Conservative Front Bench—and the Minister for the deta…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
11 September 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, briefly, I support this group of amendments, proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, and supported by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. I speak on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, who has signed her name to all the …
Lords
Oral Questions
10 September 2025
Nuclear Regulatory System
My Lords, the Government understand the need to deal with nuclear waste. If you look at defence, which I primarily have responsibility for, there is a huge amount of work going on with respect to the dismantling of waste from nuclear submarines. We are looking at a whole range of options to do with …
Lords
Debate
9 September 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, my Amendments 145B and 216 on overheating and climate change are in this group. This is an important group, and we generally support all the amendments that have been put forward.
We have just had the warmest summer on record—the warmest since 1884. Summer temperatures were 1.51 degrees a…
My Lords, I will briefly speak broadly in support of this amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Murray of Blidworth. The amendment would embed the promotion and use of mediation and alternative dispute resolution in our planning system. I inform the Committee that I have been an elected local cou…
Lords
Committee Stage
3 September 2025
Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to this statutory instrument, which proposes a further expansion of the warm home discount scheme.
I start by confirming that His Majesty’s loyal Opposition fully support the principle of shielding vulnerable households from fuel poverty. The ext…
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
3 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I open this group of amendments, which are all on local energy plans; my amendment proposes to insert a crucial new clause after Clause 28 of the Bill. It would mandate that all local authorities and combined authorities must create a local area energy plan.
Considering the late hour, I w…
I welcome the Minister’s response to my amendment and the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale. However, I am hearing from the Minister that this is not the right time to do this stuff. I understand that the Government are actively drawing up different strings and bits of policy …
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
1 September 2025
10 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I remind the Committee of my recorded register of interests: I am a non-executive director and a board member of the Water Retail Company. I will speak to my Amendment 79 and respond to the amendments on connections reform.
Amendment 79 calls on the Government to insert a new clause into …
My Lords, the amendments in this group are all on the extension of permitted development. My Amendment 77 concerns the extension of permitted development rights for low-voltage electricity networks. It intends to help this Government achieve their ambition of a clean, affordable and secure energy sy…
+8 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
24 July 2025
4 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I rise to speak to both amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. On these Benches, we broadly support Amendment 51 and we support Amendment 91. Amendment 51 seeks to amend the Planning Act 2008 to clarify that carbon dioxide spur pipelines and carbon capture equipment are eligible f…
My Lords, on these Benches we fully recognise the need for nuclear power and nuclear generation to be part of our baseload capacity, which is needed to combine with renewables as we transition to clean power. I have the utmost respect for the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, his work and everything that he ha…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
23 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
I declare my interest as a board member and director of the Water Retail Company. I thank the Minister for the Statement, and we welcome the report. I am sure the Minister will join me in thanking all the members of the public, charities and NGOs who have done so much work to ensure that we are awar…
Lords
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
2 contributions
Great British Energy: Nuclear Development
My Lords, Great British Energy’s mission is to drive clean energy deployment in order to create jobs, boost energy independence and ensure that UK taxpayers, bill payers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy. In the spending review, the Government pledged over £2.5 bil…
I thank the noble Earl for that question but I do not think that the Great British Energy budget has been cut. The £8.3 billion will be spent between the two allied companies. The small modular reactors programme, if we get a fleet of them, will generate enough energy for over 3 million homes and cr…
Lords
Proceedings
21 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
My Lords, we on these Benches welcome this Statement, issued in response to the Met Office’s State of the UK Climate report, our most authoritative assessment of the UK’s changing weather patterns. We also very much welcome the intention to make this an annual update.
We see this Statement as a mes…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 July 2025
Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2025
My Lords, this order makes modest changes to the energy company obligation—ECO—scheme, and I was pleased to see the Minister in the other place recognise that ECO4 and the GB Insulation Scheme have been a key part of the effort to upgrade homes across the country. These schemes were introduced under…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 July 2025
Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the draft Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 today.
We have a responsibility to protect future generations, and there is a shared determination across these Benches to confront climate change. That is why today’s regulations will…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I also thank the Minister for introducing the statutory instrument and outlining its objectives. The ambition to ensure that all producers contribute fairly to the costs of collecting and treating waste electrical and electronic equipment is one that few would dispute. Indeed, His Majesty’…
Lords
Committee Stage
14 July 2025
Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 3) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for setting out the purpose of this instrument. These regulations make what may be described as technical adjustments to the CfD regime. However, in practice, they signal significant changes to the principles that underpin the scheme’s operation: transparency, predicta…
Lords
Committee Stage
14 July 2025
Nuclear Installations (Compensation for Nuclear Damage) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing this instrument. As we have heard, it is intended to facilitate the UK’s accession to the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage—the CSC—by raising the liability limit for nuclear operators under the regime. Although the change is f…
Lords
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
My Lords, on these Benches we very much welcome the publication of the Government’s resilience action plan. Of course, we recognise that we live in a period marked by heightened instability and insecurity. From the war in Ukraine to issues in the Middle East, climate-related issues and cyberattacks,…
Lords
Committee Stage
9 July 2025
Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy
My Lords, the Government’s proposed updates to the national policy statements for energy, EN-1, EN-3 and EN-5, aim to lay the legislative and planning groundwork for the clean power action plan 2030.
I endorse entirely the comments of my noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford and other noble Lords i…
Lords
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Heathrow Substation Outage: NESO Review
My Lords, we are very grateful to NESO for the final report on this catastrophic power failure that shut down Heathrow, and we note the deeply concerning findings. A single point of failure detected years ago should not have been able to shut down our largest airport. This was a major incident. Heat…
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Data Centres: Energy and Water Consumption
The AI Energy Council is set up as a joint council between the Secretary of States for DESNZ and for DSIT. The noble Earl is right that, at the moment, around 2.5% of current total energy consumption is in data centres. The total amount of electricity use is due to go up from seven to 62 terawatt ho…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Grangemouth Oil Refinery Closure: Job Losses
I welcome that question and agree with the noble Earl. If we look at the oil refinery industry, we see that refineries that are doing well are investing in the future; for example, looking at sustainable fuels. The Prax refinery unfortunately went into insolvency at the beginning of the week, but th…
Lords
Proceedings
30 June 2025
UK Modern Industrial Strategy
My Lords, we on these Benches very much welcome this the first industrial strategy since 2017. We particularly welcome the concentration on our energy resilience and energy security. It is absolutely right that clean energy is included as one of the eight sectors. The green economy grew by 10.3% las…
Lords
Oral Questions
26 June 2025
2 contributions
UK Extreme Heat
My Lords, this Government are taking action to strengthen the UK’s resilience, including against environmental threats such as the recent heatwave. The national risk register details the wide-ranging impacts of extreme heat to ensure that comprehensive contingency plans are in place. In response to …
My Lords, the Cabinet Office works very closely with experts in the Met Office and the UK Health Security Agency to plan for and respond to extreme heat events well in advance of the summer months. Their advice is central to communicating the risk of extreme heat to the public. We understand how ext…
Lords
Debate
25 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Town and Country Planning Association and of the Local Government Association, an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
My interest is in the Bill’s vital …
Lords
Proceedings
24 June 2025
UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy
My Lords, we on these Benches very much welcome this report. Of course, after decades of underinvestment, it is essential to ensure that our country can operate appropriately.
I will ask the Minister about infrastructure and adaption and resilience to climate change. Our climate is changing before …