Lord Ravensdale, chair of the Midlands Energy Security Taskforce

Insider Media

A £20bn plan to deliver secure, low-cost, low-carbon energy and boost economic growth across the Midlands has been launched. The Midlands Engine Energy Security White Paper was unveiled yesterday (17 Dec) at Nottingham Trent University. Proposals to transform energy generation in the region include small scale nuclear reactors, wider use of community solar farm programmes and creating more sites for onshore wind generation. Over the next two years, the Midlands Engine will work with the government to deliver the transformation, with plans for longer-term initiatives set to run up to 2050. Lord Ravensdale, chair of the Midlands Energy Security Taskforce, said: "Through collaboration, the Midlands will drive the UK’s clean energy transformation. This White Paper is a bold step towards building a sustainable energy system that benefits businesses, communities and future generations." Speaking to Insider following the launch, Lord Ravensdale talked about how the English Devolution White Paper, launched on Monday (16 Dec) and aimed at widening the benefits of devolution across the country, could drive forward the Midlands’ economy, as well as his role of championing the Midlands in the Houses of Parliament.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Daniel Ravensdale. I'm a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, but I'm also an

00:15engineer by profession outside of the Lords, so I'm a chief engineer working for a consultancy

00:20called Atkins Realis. So this white paper that we launched, the Midlands Engine Energy

00:26Security white paper, it's all about how we respond to the gigantic energy transition

00:33that we're going through at the moment, and how we respond to it in terms of what regions

00:39and local areas can do to support it. Because as we've been through this transformation

00:44so far, the focus has very much been top-down from the government. So we've had a number

00:50of top-down targets in terms of electricity system supply, for example, in terms of energy

00:56infrastructure, and the government has worked to implement those. And we've recently had

01:01this spatial strategic energy plan published by the National Energy Systems Operator, which

01:07is about what the electricity system of the future is going to look like across the UK.

01:13But actually, what we need to do, if we're going to make this transition a success, we

01:18need to be much better at enabling local authorities, combined authorities, regions

01:24to play their parts in the energy transition. Because it's those local players who have

01:30all of the knowledge of the housing stock, of the local energy infrastructure, of all

01:35of the constraints around planning, they all want to play their part in enabling this energy

01:41transition. And so this white paper is all about that. It's all about setting, providing

01:47that thought leadership as to how regions and local areas can play their part. So it's

01:52looked across the Midlands region at what it can offer. And in fact, the Midlands region

01:57is really central, both geographically central, but also it has the industrial heart of the

02:07UK as well. And so from that perspective, it's so important for us as a region that

02:11we get this right and we get this delivered. So we've got a whole bunch of energy assets

02:16across the region. And what we've done with this white paper is develop a series of recommendations

02:21really to put an offer out there to work in collaboration with governments, firstly to

02:27enable how this, what I was talking about in terms of this energy governance from a

02:31local level, how that's actually going to work, how we're going to work with government

02:35from local areas to regions, to the national level, how we're going to put those local

02:40area energy plans in place, match those up with regional plans, how we're going to get

02:46that skills base in place that we need to deliver all of this, and how we're going to

02:52work with supply chains across the region in the future. So there's a whole series of

02:57actions flowing out of this. So we've delivered this white paper, we've delivered some recommendations,

03:02but this is just the start. And I should say that we formed a really fantastic group of

03:07people, a task force to deliver this white paper. So it had leaders from industry, from

03:13academia, from place. And it was a really fantastic process to get that level of expertise

03:20in a room, teasing out the issues and the opportunities and the solutions with the energy

03:25system. And we really want to maintain that momentum now and actually work to deliver

03:31the recommendations that we have in the white paper. And we've got a plan to do that. We've

03:35got a task and finish group that's being set up by the Midlands Engine to deliver these

03:40recommendations. I'm really excited to maintain that momentum and take this forward and get

03:47these recommendations delivered. Really important for the future of the region and really important

03:51for the future of the UK. For a start, it is about geography. A lot of this is about

03:57moving electrons around the country. And we're at that very heart of the electricity grid

04:04in the UK. There's going to be a lot more focus in the future with our more of a decentralised

04:09electricity system. There needs to be a lot more focus on the transmission network. So

04:14the geographical position of the Midlands Engine is what makes it unique. But also that

04:20we are the heart of industry in the UK. We have some fantastic industries right across

04:27the UK that are actually heavy users of electricity and of energy. And so it's really important

04:35for the future of the UK economy that those industries we have in the Midlands have access

04:41to cheap, secure and sustainable energy. And that point around costs is really vital. If

04:52we're going to get the METAD growth aspirations as a country, we're never going to do that

04:57without cheap, secure electricity. That's what's really going to continue that flow

05:04in of investment into the UK in terms of new industries. So unlocking that prize for

05:10the UK, the Midlands is really at the heart of that because of our long industrial heritage

05:16and our industrial capacity. So I've set up the Midlands Engine All Party Parliamentary

05:21Group. So that's really bringing together parliamentarians both in the House of Commons

05:26and the House of Lords to champion the Midlands Engine in Parliament. And we've got a really

05:32good group of peers, really good group of MPs who've come together as part of the APPG

05:38to champion the Midlands. And there's a number of aspects of that. Part of it is around these

05:43big transformational projects that we're bringing into the region. So for example, the Step

05:48Fusion Reactor at West Burton. We were very involved in that campaign to bring that transformational

05:56opportunity to the Midlands and working with parliamentarians to make the case to government

06:01ministers. Midlands Rail Hub is another key Midlands-wide transport project that we've

06:09worked very hard again with ministers to push the benefits of that project and make sure it

06:13gets the investment and the attention it needs from the government to enable it to progress.

06:19But also, I also like to talk about the legislative opportunities because

06:24I've worked on a number of areas of legislation where, it sounds pretty dull and arcane,

06:31but for example, the Subsidy Control Act, as it now is, that defined how subsidies could be

06:38made across the UK and across regions. I put forward an amendment so that companies could

06:45still benefit from subsidies when they were moving from an advantaged area of the country

06:50to a more disadvantaged area, really to encourage that levelling up agenda as it was at the time.

06:57So that's an example of some of the legislative work I've done with the group and that amendment

07:01was accepted by the government really to enable disadvantaged areas to move on and get business

07:10and investment flowing into those areas. So it's a combination really of the legislative agenda and

07:16really championing those key pan-regional projects that are going to benefit everyone.

07:23One of the issues we've got at the moment is we're now blessed with two fantastic

07:27combined authorities. We've got the West Midlands Combined Authority, the East Midlands

07:31County Combined Authority. But, of course, those two combined authorities only make up

07:40a minor part of the population of the Midlands, maybe around five million people,

07:44whereas the total population of the Midlands is around 11 million people. So what we don't want,

07:49and we've seen this recently with a few areas of legislation, the way the government are

07:54considering things, is that they will work with the combined authorities, which is a

08:00really exciting opportunity to further devolve power. But we need to make sure that we don't

08:04leave behind all those other people who don't live in a combined authority.

08:11So I think the English Devolution White Paper is a really exciting opportunity really to

08:16further refine those benefits of devolution and make sure that the whole population can

08:23realise those benefits and how those structures are being set up. So that's the

08:27challenge for us in the Midlands. We've got the two combined authorities, great, but we need to further

08:35work to make sure those benefits are felt by the wider population and those broader

08:40devolution agreements are put in place.

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