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Town Centre Regeneration

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether (a) Age Concern and (b) Victim Support are consulted on regeneration plans. [189236]

Phil Hope: The term 'regeneration plan' could refer to a wide spectrum of arrangements developed at a national, regional, sub-regional or local level. Consultation with stakeholders is integral to sustainable regeneration. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not issue a definitive list of organisations that must be consulted about regeneration. Guidance recommends that consultation should normally include the voluntary and community sector as well as representatives of local communities. Decisions about who to involve in particular cases are left to the partnership or agency which is leading on any regeneration scheme.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Early Growth

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small businesses Early Growth invested in between its inception and March 2003; and if she will make a statement. [189806]

Nigel Griffiths: The first of the seven Early Growth Funds, London Seed Capital, launched in October 2002 and made one investment in the period to March 2003. Other Early Growth Funds launched during 2003–04. In the period to September 2004 over £4 million had been invested into 39 SMEs.

One objective of the Early Growth Funds is for them to demonstrate to future private investors that it was possible for commercial returns to be made by investing modest amounts into SMEs. The funds themselves will invest over a five to seven year period and performance to date has been within expectations.
 
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Renewable Energy

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in implementing recommendations made by the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee in March 2001 that incineration and other waste-to-energy technologies should not be regarded as renewable energy sources. [187068]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The EU directive on the promotion of renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market (2001/77/EC) defines the biodegradable fraction of energy from waste as renewable.

The Government carried out significant consultation on the support available to energy from waste through the Renewables Obligation—the main driver for the development of renewable energy in Great Britain—before deciding that the incineration of mixed waste should not be eligible for the Renewables Obligation.

The Government are however keen to stimulate the development of potentially cleaner and more efficient energy from waste technologies such as pyrolysis, gasification and anaerobic digestion. The proportion of energy, generated by these advanced conversion technologies, derived from the biodegradable fraction of waste, is eligible for support under the Renewables Obligation.

The Government have recently published the draft terms of reference for the 2005–06 Review of the Renewables Obligation. The Government do not propose to extend ROC eligibility to electricity generated from existing waste management projects which utilise conventional "mass burn" incineration technology. However the review will consider whether other options for waste management have emerged in the market which meet the goals of securing energy from wastes in efficient and environmentally beneficial ways and are consistent with the Government's wider waste management goals of increasing recycling and reducing the quantity of biodegradable MSW sent to landfill, as required by the EU landfill directive.

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what Government aid and assistance is available to producers of each kind of renewable energy source. [189924]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government's main support mechanism for renewable energy is the Renewables Obligation. It provides the same level of support for the following sources: onshore wind; offshore wind; wave; tidal; geothermal; solar PV; all new hydro and refurbished older hydro of up to 20MW declared net capacity; landfill gas; sewage gas; electricity generation from biomass such as energy crops or forestry residues; co-firing of biomass with fossil fuels; and energy from mixed waste—however, only the non-fossil derived component is eligible and advanced conversion techniques such as pyrolysis, gasification or anaerobic digestion must be used.

£500 million of funding has also been allocated between 2002 and 2008 for emerging renewable technologies. It has been provided in the form of capital grants and funding for RD&D. Some examples of money already allocated include £117 million for round
 
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1 offshore wind projects; around £66 million for biomass projects; £31 million for solar PV; £50 million for the Marine Renewables Development Fund, and approximately £19 million per year for industry lead RD&D.

£12.5 million of this has been allocated for the Clear-Skies programme, which has recently been extended to run for an extra year to 2006. This provides grants for domestic, community and not-for-profit schemes for the following renewable sources: small-scale wind, small-scale hydro, wood-fuelled boiler and heating systems, and solar thermal systems.

Solar thermal systems are also eligible for support, for commercial companies, under the Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme.

Renewable electricity is also exempt from the climate change levy. All renewable sources eligible under the RO are also eligible for this exemption with the following exceptions: only hydro-power up to 10MW in size rather than 20MW, and energy from municipal and industrial waste incineration without the need for advanced conversion techniques—but only for the proportion of waste that is biodegradable.

Renewable energy will also benefit indirectly from the introduction of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme in 2005.

Bank Holidays

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the cost to businesses of (a) extra staffing costs incurred by working on bank holidays and (b) additional costs incurred through closing on bank holidays. [188827]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Unfortunately, we are unable to assess the cost to businesses for extra staffing costs incurred by bank holidays, and the additional costs for closing on bank holidays. This information will depend on the individual business and may be held by the businesses themselves.

Beer Prices

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research her Department has carried out into the impact on the retail price of beer resulting from the market position of large pub companies. [186336]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The aim of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to make markets work well for consumers and it is for the OFT to investigate if there is reason to believe that the market position of pub companies is harming competition. The DTI has not carried out research into the retail price of beer.

Bioenergy

Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the progress of schemes which have been awarded under her Department's Bioenergy Capital Grants scheme. [187584]

 
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Mr. Mike O'Brien: The scheme is divided into priority sections each supporting a sector of the industry. £66 million was allocated to projects under the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme. This includes clusters of small heating boilers, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and power generation.

Under priority areas la/lb/2 of the scheme, eleven power generation/CHP projects were offered grants with two having met the conditions for acceptance and now under construction. The remaining nine are all actively working toward fulfilling their grant conditions, with five having received planning permission and are in various stages of agreement on fuel supplies and power purchase agreements.

As of June 30, boilers had been installed under priorities 3a/3b representing over 5MW of capacity.

Renewable Power Stations

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether she intends to give smaller local power stations help towards construction. [185845]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government have no plans to give help towards the construction of small power stations but are providing support in a number of other ways.

The Renewables Obligation (RO) offers support to operators of renewable power stations (many of which are relatively small) by giving a premium value to generation from eligible renewable sources. The RO rules were amended in April 2004 to allow small generating stations with a capacity of 50kw Declared Net Capacity or less to accumulate output and be awarded Renewable Energy Certificates (ROCs) on the basis of their annual, rather than monthly, output, and we are proposing some additional flexibility in our current consultation paper on the Renewables Obligation Order 2005, published on 8 September.

The DTI-funded Clear Skies (www.clear-skies.org) initiative enables not-for-profit community organisations, including housing corporation, local authorities and schools to receive up to £100,000 for grants towards installing renewable technologies, which can include small renewable generating stations. Such projects give local communities a direct stake in renewables. An extension of this initiative for a further year was announced in September.

In addition, the Government are committed, under the Energy Act 2004, to developing a strategy within 18 months or so for the promotion of micro generation in the UK. Work has already started on the strategy, which will look specifically at promoting microgeneration from energy sources that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including biomass.

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