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UK Government's Energy Policy

I accept what the hon. Gentleman says, but he will realise that we are working with rather constrained budgets, and we want to make the best use of them. I am sure that the message that he and the right hon. Member for Delyn have delivered today will be taken up by the Minister, and other Members are making the same point. We need a review of the feed-in tariff that is quick, effective and efficient as possible. The other inquiry was on bio-energy—the production of heat and electricity from plant materials. Today, the renewable heat initiatives were announced. It will be a notable event for Wales. I have visited Port Talbot in the constituency of the hon. Member for Aberavon—he is not in his place—where such a facility is burning forest waste and producing electricity. The renewable heat incentive will ensure that Wales has other such facilities, and they will be used to great advantage. I have read the Secretary of State’s announcement, although I have not seen the detail, but at a smaller scale, a go-ahead farmer, Edward Davis of Evenjobb in my constituency, is covering his chicken houses with photovoltaic cells. He is trying to keep under the 50 kW limit. He now wants renewable heat incentives; he produces a lot of heat in the chicken sheds to keep the little chicks going, and that air has to be removed. He wants to capture the heat from it and use it to heat the air that he feeds back in. He wonders whether the renewable heat incentive will cover that sort of technology. People are really inventive and innovative, and I am enthusiastic and hopeful about such things. I move on to the setting up of technology innovation centres. The Government have announced that they will put forward £200 million over four years to sustain eight or nine centres, based on the Fraunhofer centre in Germany. There will be several components. There will be Government money from the research councils; as they spend money across the UK, it will be available in Wales. Money will also come from universities and private business. We, as Welsh constituency Members, as well as the Wales Office, should ensure that Welsh bids are made to set up technology innovation centres in Wales. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion pointed out, there would a wonderful opportunity in Aberystwyth. IBERS—the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences—is a go-ahead research organisation that does a lot of work on renewable energy. Perhaps I may be so bold as to suggest to hon. Members who represent north-east Wales that that would be a wonderful theme for a centre in north Wales. The photovoltaic industry is one of the few renewable energy sectors that makes real steps forward for technology to become more efficient, cost less and deliver more. We need to look at a technology innovation centre for Wales, and I will be very disappointed if we do not get one. We all look forward to the green deal. Many constituency MPs will have met constituents who suffered greatly during the cold weather over the winter. We managed to increase the severe weather payment to £25, which was welcomed by our constituents. We must encourage better insulation for our homes. The green deal will work, but it needs more incentives and I would like the Government to look at that. One option could be to reduce stamp duty on those houses that meet a minimum energy efficiency. Another option, suggested by the Federation of Master Builders, would be to ensure that all materials that go into the green deal have a VAT rate of 5%, reflecting their contribution to energy efficiency. The Government should look at a number of those issues as they introduce the green deal to ensure that it takes off more effectively and efficiently. I have one last point to make. This is not a reserved matter, but it is about planning. A number of hon. Members have mentioned the fact that, although everybody wants the new plants, they do not necessarily want them in their own constituency, or there is a planning problem about that. In my constituency, a family farming business—not a big farm—wanted to invest £2.5 million in an anaerobic digester. It took it three and a half years to receive yes as an answer. I do not comment on whether that was the right decision, but for a planning process to take three and a half years is an absolute disgrace. There is no incentive for people to get involved in such matters if they have to put up with that sort of service. With those few words, I shall conclude my remarks.