Making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:17 pm on 26 July 2024.

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Photo of Michael Shanks Michael Shanks Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) 2:17, 26 July 2024

I will make some progress, because I have only four minutes. If I have time, I will come back to the hon. Lady.

The hon. Gentleman has repeated the point about food insecurity, despite me just saying what the National Farmers Union—which I think is an expert on this topic—has said about it. He has also made a point about the amount of infrastructure in one given area, which is why it is really important that we co-ordinate that infrastructure much better than we do at the moment. That is why the spatial energy plan is so important; the previous Government commenced that work, and we will continue it, because we need a holistic view of all this energy infrastructure so that individual communities do not become saturated with one particular type of infrastructure.

However, I say gently to all hon. Members that at some point we have to accept that some of that infrastructure is nationally important and will have to be sited somewhere. Even if we have offshore cables, that infrastructure, by its very nature, has to come onshore at some point. There will have to be a recognition of the need for infrastructure in communities, but I take the point about the importance of it being well planned.