Luke Myer MP presses Government to fix grid delays and support clean growth

18 July 2025

Luke Myer MP has called on the Government to improve grid connections in rural East Cleveland, after hosting a roundtable with local manufacturers who raised concerns about energy infrastructure delays holding back investment.

Speaking in Parliament, Luke said:

“Yesterday I hosted a roundtable of manufacturers in the rural part of my constituency. They welcomed the Government’s industrial strategy and particularly the measures on industrial energy prices, but they raised concerns about the grid connections in that part of my constituency. Will the Government work with me to improve these grid connections, because the Teesside region has thousands of jobs in clean energy and green industries, and I want all my industries to benefit from that?”

In response, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, said:

“The Energy Minister has just volunteered, unprompted, which rarely happens in this House, to meet my hon. Friend, so enthusiastic is he about discussing this issue.

“My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of grid connections. We inherited an absolutely broken system that was massively oversubscribed, with a zombie queue, lengthening delays, and nothing happening, basically. That is why we have ended the first come, first served system and are doing a much more intentional, planned system for the grid. That is good for connecting renewable energy, but the other crucial thing is that by working out which energy projects we need and which we do not, we free up the queue for industrial projects. That is the key, and that is the work that NESO is currently embarked upon. I hope that it will help businesses in his constituency and across the country to deal with the obvious and acknowledged frustration they have on grid connection.”

Luke welcomed the Minister’s commitment to meet and said he would continue working to ensure that rural manufacturers in East Cleveland are not left behind in the clean energy transition.

He is now set to meet the Energy Minister to press for progress on aligning grid reform with industrial development across Teesside.