---

Energy Providers

The hon. Gentleman makes a point about what happened many years ago, but we are now—as the Secretary of State said—in a very different set of circumstances. We have seen a significant move to gas, which has enabled us to meet our Kyoto commitments. We have not seen the necessary investment in new plant, and we have to look again at how we can give new life to coal. We have not reluctantly accepted this policy; we are passionately committed to delivering it because we think that coal has an important role to play in the future. The other aspect of the debate is low-carbon energy. While the Government have talked the talk in this area, they have not walked the walk. We have seen lots of targets, but we have not seen enough real action. The Government set up the marine renewables deployment fund with £15 million, but not one penny has been spent. They should be helping to market emerging technologies in which we can lead the way rather than setting rules that companies cannot meet. The Government consented to 33 GW of offshore wind, but they did not consult anyone in the industry about the feasibility of building that by 2020. The wind industry says that it cannot do more than 20 GW, so the Government have set a target that the industry does not believe it can deliver. In other areas such as smart meters we have offered the Government a way forward. Smart metering is a crucial element in encouraging microgeneration and tackling fuel poverty. It could be achieved in a decade—but not if the Government do not accept the framework. There has been some movement in the Energy Bill, but there is complete support in industry and among many politicians and environment and consumer groups for setting a timescale, and I hope that the Minister will go away and reflect on whether that could still be built into this debate. We have worked with the Minister's colleagues and others outside the House to push forward the case for feed-in tariffs for microgeneration. We are glad that that has been accepted now. We want to see the detail of how it will be done. It could have been done months ago when there was clear agreement across the House. We could have been making much more progress than we have made up to now. We have seen a Government obsessed by targets. They have a target of 10 per cent. of electricity from renewables by 2010, of 20 per cent. of electricity from renewables by 2020, 15 per cent. of our energy to come from renewables by 2020, all homes to be insulated by 2020, abolition of fuel poverty by 2016—interestingly, 22 November 2016; we do not know if it is the morning or the afternoon, but we are told that it will happen that day for certain—targets to reduce carbon emissions and other targets. We need action rather than targets from the Government. People want delivery. We want to move away from the endless process of consultation. The conclusion of the smart meter consultation was that there should be three more consultation exercises. We have not had decisions. The Government have shied away when decisions have been essential. We are totally with the Government about the urgency of issues that need to be tackled, but we shall be able to deliver on the challenge of tackling fuel poverty, moving to cleaner energy and ensuring energy security only if the Government make real decisions and stop simply talking the language of what they would like to achieve.