Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 2:59 pm on 19 October 2022.
Actually, it goes back to some of the points I was making in response to earlier questions about what we're considering in terms of increasing our support for businesses to both decarbonise and also to de-risk their own energy supply with energy generation—that includes district heating schemes as well—and look at where we have different economic enterprises and how the heat that is potentially generated can be used to beneficial effect. So, it's a point that I think the Member will understand well from his previous time as a local authority leader, looking at the opportunities for district heating and power schemes, and looking to see how many of those we can introduce and where they are. But there is a much broader challenge about inflationary costs. Part of our challenge also is that in the way that our energy market is currently structured, we allowed gas to drive prices in a way that is disconnected from reality. So, we've got some really big challenges to try to work through. We need to understand in the next two weeks the financial levers we have available to us, and we need to understand what the scheme is going to be for non-domestic energy users. They all play into each other, but we'll certainly look to be as constructive as possible, and I'll be making a further statement in the coming weeks about some of that support.