MPs have lamented the lack of consensus on energy policy, with one blaming the issue on backbench “dinosaurs” and climate change sceptics.
The comments were made at the Utility Week Energy Summit in London.
“What’s happened over the recent period is actually we haven’t had a consensus on energy within one particular government – or one particular party within government,” said Labour shadow minister for energy and climate change, Alan Whitehead.
“What we’ve had over quite a period of time is that there’s considerable tension, for example between what the Treasury thinks is energy policy and what the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) thinks is energy policy.
“And that, I think, has been responsible for a number of policy lurches over the last few years”.
Liberal Democrat MP and former energy secretary Ed Davey agreed, saying the government has had a number of “stupid policies” as a result, for instance, on carbon capture and storage, onshore wind and solar.
“It’s incapable of making decisions,” he added. “I wonder who makes the cups of tea because they can’t even decide that as far as I can see.”
“There’s no certainty, which undermines investment in innovation. There’s no leadership. There’s no sense of direction which is so important for ideas.”
He lauded the work of Ofgem, whose leadership, he said, is “filling the vacuum”.
Ofgem was the driving force behind the smart systems and flexibility plan, according to Davey, who said it would never have emerged were it not for the regulator: “I think we should pay tribute to at least part of the system that appears to me to be working”.
He also praised the efforts of Tory allies, including former MP Laura Sandys and current BEIS Committee chair Antoinette Sandbach – both fellow panellists – as well as energy and climate change minister Claire Perry.
Nevertheless, Davey said Whitehead was right to identify the problem as coming from within in the Conservative party, adding: “You need people in the government party to stand up to those dinosaurs and climate change sceptics who still lurk on the backbenches”.
On the other hand, he said the situation has not been helped by Labour’s vow to nationalise the energy networks, which he argued would divert attention away from more pressing issues, such as how to decarbonise heat.
Sandbach responded by saying there are “a massive number of MPs” who support the decarbonisation agenda, particularly younger members, from both inside and outside the Conservative party.
Sandys said things have improved with the appointment of Philip Hammond as chancellor of the exchequer in 2016. She said he is “really good” on the issue of decarbonisation and has a “softer ear” than his predecessor, George Osborne.