HC Deb 27 October 1986 vol 103 cc4-5
2. Mr. Peter Bruinvels

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the latest progress of Leicester city's planned combined heat and power scheme.

16. Mr. Rost

asked the Secretary of State for Energy when he expects to receive reports from those city combined heat and power district heating feasibility studies to which his Department has provided funding.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy (Mr. David Hunt)

Consortia in receipt of grant-aid regularly advise my Department on their progress. The Leicester consortium expects to announce the results of its studies early in December, and the Belfast and Edinburgh consortia are on schedule to complete their work programmes by March next year.

Mr. Bruinvels

As Leicester is the lead city, is my hon. Friend aware that the consortium is particularly keen to get the go-ahead to start finalising the arrangements? Is he further aware that Leicester has already prepared an energy action programme which will save householders and businesses in the city £10 million over the next 12 months? Will he, therefore, do everything in his power to support the consortium—I know that he has done so up to now – to ensure that the citizens of Leicester benefit from energy savings?

Mr. Hunt

I commend my hon. Friend and my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Leicester, South (Mr. Spencer) for their very strong advocacy of the merits of the Leicester scheme, and I await the report with eager anticipation.

Mr. Rost

Is my hon. Friend aware that some area boards — including the East Midlands and Leicester boards — co-operate constructively with city consortia while others drag their feet and find excuses not to cooperate? Yorkshire's lack of co-operation with the Sheffield scheme is an example of such action.

Will my hon. Friend accept that perhaps he needs to give clear guidelines on how the Energy Act 1983 should be interpreted, particularly the adopt and support section for district heating and CHP?

Mr. Hunt

I shall investigate what my hon. Friend has said. As a prime supporter of the relevant section of the Energy Act, he knows that it created a guaranteed market for the sale of electricity from CHP schemes and placed a duty on electricity boards to adopt and support viable projects. I understand that, in line with section 19, electricity boards are actively involved in evaluating a number of CHP schemes. The Leicester scheme is one example and the involvement of the CEGB in that scheme has been commended by the promoters. I shall, of course, investigate the points made by my hon. Friend.

Mr. Janner

Will the Minister take this opportunity to congratulate Leicester city council on the excellent way in which it has made progress on the scheme, which we hope will provide cheap electricity for all sorts of people in the city? As the Government sparked off the scheme, will the Minister undertake that when we require major capital expenditure, in which major Government involvement will be needed, that money will be available and will not be withdrawn, as has happened in so many other instances involving Government funding for local authorities?

Mr. Hunt

As the hon. and learned Gentleman should know, my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Bruinvels) arranged for me to meet the leaders of the consortia, when I was able to congratulate all those concerned.

Back to