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UK Government's Energy Policy

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Redditch, who knows Wrexham, where she lost her council seat to a Labour candidate, well. I endorse much of what my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn said about feed-in tariffs. Let me approach the matter from the perspective of having a Government who want to encourage economic growth and employment in low-carbon industries. That is what the Government say they wish to pursue at this particular time. We are all interested in creating jobs in our communities and constituencies. In that respect, I will refer to the solar energy industry in north Wales because it is particularly prominent in that area. Sharp decided to make solar panels in Wrexham in 2004. The company has been in Wrexham since the 1980s when it arrived as inward investors. At the time, it was making video recorders—remember them?—and microwave ovens. As video recorders became less saleable, it was clear that, if the factory was to have a future, the company would have to introduce new products to Sharp in Wrexham. A great deal of hard work went in to bringing in photovoltaic cells to Wrexham in the early part of the decade. A big disadvantage at that time was that we did not have substantial demand for photovoltaic cells in the UK. From 2001 to 2008, while I was on the Back Benches, I campaigned hard for the introduction of a feed-in tariff in the UK. I attended numerous meetings and was knocked back on many occasions. I say to the hon. Member for Aberconwy in relation to his campaign that one of the lessons in politics is never to take no for an answer. As far as the feed-in tariff was concerned, I had to attend many meetings and debates and ask many questions before it was introduced. I took my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband), who was then Secretary of State for Climate Change, to see the Sharp photovoltaic cell battery in Wrexham. The feed-in tariff was introduced in the early part of 2010, and I like to think that that meeting that he had at Sharp was very influential in making the case for the feed-in tariff to support the photovoltaic cell industry. Very few policies, when introduced, command cross-party support, but the feed-in tariff was one of them. There are even fewer policies that when introduced have an immediate beneficial impact in the way that the feed-in tariff has. Political policies often have a negative impact very quickly. They rarely have a positive impact very quickly. When the feed-in tariff was introduced last year, it had an immediate positive impact, which was confirmed in a parliamentary answer from the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle on 28 February. He said: ““The UK solar photovoltaic market has seen an increase in production capacity as a result of the introduction of the feed-in-tariff. Sharp reports increased production by 25% and Romag, operating in the north-east, are increasing production by 30%.””—[Official Report, 28 February 2011; Vol. 524, c. 241W.] Earlier this year, 300 extra jobs were announced in the Wrexham plant, taking the number of people who work there up to 1,100. A very positive impact for a policy that is not yet a year old. The fact that the Government have made an inexplicable decision to bring forward the review of the feed-in tariff and review the particular level at 50 kW is therefore an issue not of party political point scoring, but of massive import. That level prevents exactly the type of community project that we all support and want to see in our constituencies from taking place. There may well be legislative concerns about solar farms of the type that have been described, but the level at which the review is proceeding—50 kW—would prevent any reasonably sized community project from proceeding. I am advised that a project could have a base level of perhaps 3.9 kW per home. On that basis, 50 kW equates to 15 homes. So the level that is being considered at present is completely at odds with the realities of the market, and I implore the Government to make that point forcefully to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. A company called Sharp in my constituency could have chosen to invest anywhere in the world. It has chosen to come to my constituency in Wales to invest private finance—not Government money; there are no massive grants or anything of that nature—to create jobs and employment in Wrexham. Within the past year, it has also built an education centre at the Wrexham factory—I urge all hon. Members to come and look at it—that describes the benefits of solar power. That company is bringing young people into that centre regularly to educate them. Last month, on the Friday following the announcement, I attended the opening of a training centre for the individuals and small businesses that Sharp is encouraging to invest in installing solar panels on roofs. That creates jobs not just at Sharp and in Wrexham, but for the future. Such an approach creates jobs for electricians, roofers and contractors in the construction sector, which is very hard pressed at the moment, and is helping to provide the type of low-carbon energy jobs that we talk about all the time, but that are so difficult to bring to reality. This is a real gift horse—a rare thing in politics—but we are seriously looking it in the mouth at the moment. The introduction of the feed-in tariff took so long, and I deeply regret the fact that it was not brought in earlier. I remember going to Germany in the early part of the past decade and talking to people there about the 100,000 roofs project, as it was referred to at that time. They talked about the certainty in the investment framework that was important in allowing people to invest in the industry. That certainty was created by the feed-in tariff. For a party that purports to understand business, the Conservative party is undermining that certainty in the investment framework and has made a massive error. At the very time that business is choosing to invest because it knew that it had a stable framework, the Conservatives have created uncertainty by bringing forward the review. As we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn, that review has undermined the investment framework. Those projects were bringing new jobs—I am not just talking about Sharp; we have heard about Kingspan and others, and I have mentioned the roofers and electricians—that are desperately needed at the moment, and they need to be secure. If possible, can we please bring forward the review? The 50 kW limit is completely absurd and is preventing good projects from creating good jobs now. It is a disincentive to private investment. People who are hard-pressed to pay their mortgages want to have good opportunities to have jobs in the solar power industry. That was happening until the announcement was made in February. It was a big mistake, and the Government should admit that, deal with the review as quickly as possible and ensure that the solar industry gets back on track.