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Energy Bill

My noble friend has answered his middle question by summing up the comparative costs. That is the issue we are addressing with regard to microgeneration. I respect entirely what he says about new build. We all recognise that, as with all these strategies regarding the demanding target that we have to hit by 2020, every year is valuable. I am not underestimate the necessity for intelligent strategic action by the Government, and I will seek to give my noble friend a reply to his most interesting question about the relationship between departments on new build. I will have to write to him as I certainly do not have the figures to hand. My noble friend will appreciate my great anxiety about building into the Bill a timescale of one year for this strategy against a background, for reasons I have already identified—and I have not quite finished yet—of comparative costs and the best strategic way we can hit the target, which is the overall issue we are all concerned about. I do not detract from the noble Baroness’s intention that this is an approach towards the achievement of the target, and of course it has the virtue of engaging the public. I certainly recognise that there is an enormous difference between producing a ROC strategy which changes the terms for biomass consumed by Drax and microgeneration which involves the whole of the community. In my community a number of houses have been changed to use photovoltaic cells, which reflects that some people feel the investment will produce proper rewards. What is alerting the whole community to an awareness of climate change is refuse collection. That immediately triggers off questions about what action needs to be taken and what sacrifices people need to make for greater deliberation on how rubbish is collected. I do not suggest for one moment that that matter is on the same scale as electricity generation in terms of the issues we are concerned with in the Bill, but if the additional argument is that microgeneration has the great advantage of helping people to become more aware of the issues of climate change, and they are doing their bit, I merely suggest that the public’s awareness is being occasioned by strategies other than the energy strategy. I think that that is almost bound to be the case.