Extracts from Commons debate on the Queen's Speech - Jan 15
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Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): What the
Secretary of State says about electric vehicles is absolutely right
and I applaud it. My vast constituency comprises 5,752 sq km and
has 18 charging points, so that is a move in the right direction.
My point, however, is that electric cars are expensive—more than
most people can afford. Does the right hon. Lady agree that a tax
break—perhaps through the PAYE system —should be considered as a
way to encourage people to...Request free trial
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter
Ross) (LD): What the Secretary of State says about electric
vehicles is absolutely right and I applaud it. My vast constituency
comprises 5,752 sq km and has 18 charging points, so that is a move
in the right direction. My point, however, is that electric cars
are expensive—more than most people can afford. Does the right hon.
Lady agree that a tax break—perhaps through the PAYE system —should
be considered as a way to encourage people to buy electric cars?
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (Andrea Leadsom): My right hon. Friend the
Transport Secretary is sitting right next to me, and he and I
work closely on all sorts of incentives for people to move away
from fossil fuels and toward decarbonisation. Of course, as the
hon. Gentleman knows, transport is a key target area and we will
talk more about it later... Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford and Eccles) (Lab): My hon. Friend makes a pertinent point. Although the comments in the Queen’s Speech are certainly welcome—I will come to them in more detail shortly—they do not sit alongside a robust strategy to support the creation of a market for electric vehicles. The hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) made a point about the affordability of electric vehicles. They are not cheap and most people cannot afford them, so we have a duty to create the market by providing incentives. The Government should use their own procurement to ensure that their fleets are electric by a specified date, and we should ensure that fleet operators are incentivised to make their fleets electric so that the vehicles can transition into the second-hand car market. There is an essential need to ensure that people who want to buy new electric vehicles can afford to do so, with options ranging from scrappage schemes all the way through to incentivisation. Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab): As my hon. Friend will be aware, Orb steelworks—the only producer of electrical steels in the country—was mothballed just before Christmas. With investment, the plant could provide an end-to-end supply chain for the electric vehicles industry so that we would not have to import this kind of steel. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is absolutely crucial that the Government step up and support our steel industry, which could play a key part in this green industrial revolution?
Rebecca Long Bailey: My hon. Friend is
quite right. It is devastating to see the impact of what has
happened in her constituency. We need to tackle the climate
emergency, and we need a robust industrial strategy to sit
alongside it. This is the biggest economic opportunity that the
country has had in a generation. By tackling a huge societal and
environmental need, we can support our industries and create the
new green jobs of the future. Unfortunately, although we talk
about targets, and about providing help here and there, we are
not backing it up with a comprehensive industrial strategy that
supports our industries. What was lacking in the general election
campaign—although certainly not from the Labour party—was support
for the steel sector, with a robust strategy ensuring that the
steel industry plays a key role in our infrastructure projects
and the technologies of the future. That is what I would like to
see from this Government...
Grant Shapps: I am very pleased that
the hon. Gentleman has asked that question. There is £500 million
to help a gigafactory come to this country. That was not done
behind closed door; we announced it publicly. I am sorry he had
not spotted the announcement. This is a very positive way of
ensuring that more car production comes here. I should also let
him know that one in five electric cars sold in Europe last
year were made in the United Kingdom—made right here...
We are doing an awful lot of things behind the scenes to
encourage take-up. For example, if someone goes to pay their road
tax on the DVLA site right now, they will see a page that
suggests that they might be able to pay less road tax if they
transfer to an electric car. I know that there are concerns about
the overall costs of buying a new electric car, but I want to
make this point. When someone buys an electric car, they will
find that their petrol bill disappears—it is replaced by an
electric bill, but that will probably be a 10th of the cost. They
will find that there is no oil for the car and no servicing for
the car, and the car tax may well be much lower. Given that 85%
of car buyers buy on a finance package—a personal contract
purchase—the overall lifetime experience of owning the car may
not be all that different. But I agree that we need to work hard
to ensure that, as with solar, where we have seen a 50% cut in
the cost, we see the same with electric cars...
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