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Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill

I am addressing my remarks to new clause 4 and amendment (a), tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst. Under new clause 4, as my hon. Friend will know, it is left to the opinion of the Secretary of State as to which of those approaches is better. Why not trust local authorities to make their own assessment of whether promoting a lot of microgeneration, where it is uneconomic, is preferable to reducing the fuel bills or increasing insulation in the houses of the poorest citizens of their locality? Surely we should leave that decision to the local authorities—indeed, they have the powers to do so at the moment—and my hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (Mr. Newmark) has referred to the way in which his council exercises those powers very responsibly. Of course, the trouble is that the Government are dictating so much council activity from the centre that the discretion to do such worthwhile things is being reduced, because of the way in which the Government are manipulating council tax grants.