Lord Leong (Lab)

I acknowledge all the points made by the noble Lords, Lord Fox and Lord Sharpe. I am aware of the increased energy costs. I congratulate the previous Government on actually setting up the supercharger scheme and building it up. Yes, we need to look at the financial scheme and everything else, but we have what we have now, and we are increasing the relief from 60% to 90% as a stopgap—if I can use that word—to help businesses now. We are going to undertake the review to look at what we need to do, as a whole—especially on the SME point mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Fox. The supercharger is open to SMEs as well as larger businesses, provided they produce an eligible product. Currently, of the 550 businesses eligible for the scheme, 60% of them are SMEs, so SMEs are not being disadvantaged and can access the scheme. The key criterion is that the business, regardless of its size, is in an eligible sector—one that is highly traded and electricity intensive—and meets the business test for the relevant scheme. I turn to the point that the noble Lord, Lord Sharpe, made about net zero. As I said earlier, this is a policy decision. Our clean energy superpower mission is a long-term plan to increase our energy security and reduce electricity bills. This includes investing in clean energy and strengthening our connections to the EU energy market, capitalising on the economic opportunities of the net-zero transition. The other point to make is that these changes support our mission to bring down bills down for good, with homegrown clean energy or clean power that we control, ensuring that industry reaps the rewards of lower energy costs. We are developing further policies to narrow the electricity price gaps for non-domestic users. We intend to consult on options to reduce electricity costs and make low-carbon heat the economically natural choice. This will give stakeholders a clear opportunity to shape the next phase of electrification policy. The noble Lord, Lord Fox, mentioned data centres. I must admit that I am kicking myself, because I know the answer to this: we are aware that data centres use massive energy and water, and we have a plan. I will write to the noble Lord setting out what we are doing as far as data centres are concerned. He also asked about our steel strategy. I had a quick check on BBC Online and, according to the BBC, spring is in March, April and May, so we are still getting into it. I hope to share our strategy with the noble Lord then. As I said earlier, we are building on what the previous Government have done as far as the supercharger is concerned. We are supporting energy-intensive industries by uplifting the relief, and these regulations go some way to supporting that. I commend them to the Committee.