(Con):...I shall speak mainly
on housing, but there are three issues on energy that I would
like to raise. First, I welcome the fact that we are going to
drill in the North Sea, for the future. It is a crucial decision
to safeguard our supplies. Secondly, I am following
Rolls-Royce’s efforts on mini nuclear reactors.
We could have signed a document and had those mini reactors being
built now—nobody suggested that it should have an exclusive right
to the mini reactor market, but at least we could have got going.
But we have not. Will my noble friend on the Front Bench at least
try to move this forward, so that we get some decision on mini
reactors? They are important. Thirdly, on hydrogen, we all know
that Infrastructure UK appeared to be totally anti-hydrogen. We
have only to look at our German colleagues. Germany has now got
to a state where it believes it can do tests, and that there is a
market for a combination of gas and hydrogen for domestic
premises. If we think back to the period when we went from coal
to LPG for our heating, we see that no wonder it is a big
project—it affects the vast majority of homes in the United
Kingdom. We know that Germany is doing the work. Imperial College
has come out with a report saying that it is going to move things
forward, and there are a host of others doing work in that area.
I would like to see some support from His Majesty’s Government in
that area...
