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On 23 November the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published its proposals for the long-delayed Energy Bill. The bill was dogged by arguments between the DECC and the Treasury. Secretary of State Ed Davey called the bill "a landmark agreement on energy policy that will deliver a clear, durable signal to investors".

Mr Davey said in a statement: "This is a durable agreement across the coalition against which companies can invest and support jobs and our economic recovery. The decisions we've reached are true to the coalition agreement; they mean we can introduce the Energy Bill next week and have essential electricity market reforms up and running by 2014 as planned.

"They will allow us to meet our legally binding carbon reduction and renewable energy obligations and will bring on the investment required to keep the lights on and bills affordable for consumers."

Four bidders have been shortlisted for the next phase of the UK's £1bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition. The four were selected from eight bids received after an evaluation process that considered project deliverability, value for money and the Government's timetable to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry in the 2020s.

The four short listed bids – all full-chain capture, transport and storage projects – are:
• Captain Clean Energy Project, a proposal for a 570MW project in Grangemouth, Scotland, with storage in offshore depleted gas fields. It is led by Summit Power, involving Petrofac (CO2 Deepstore), National Grid and Siemens.
• Peterhead, a 340MW post-combustion capture retrofitted to part of an existing 1,180MW power station at Peterhead, Scotland. It is led by Shell and SSE.
• Teesside Low Carbon Project, a pre-combustion coal gasification project on Teesside, with storage in depleted oil field and saline aquifer. It is a consortium led by Progressive Energy and involving GDF SUEZ, Premier Oil, and BOC.
• White Rose Project, an oxyfuel capture project at a proposed new 304MW coal-fired power station on the Drax site in North Yorkshire. It is led by Alstom and involves Drax, BOC and National Grid.

National Grid has announced the route corridor and substation site to connect proposed new windfarms in Mid Wales to the high-voltage electricity network in Shropshire. Cefn Coch in Powys has been identified as the preferred area for the substation and the 'red north' route via Llansantffraid to Lower Frankton in Shropshire as the preferred route corridor.

According to the announcement, on 31 July: "Listening to local views has played an important part in this decision. National Grid has consulted extensively with local people and specialist bodies, and has weighed up issues such as landscape, flooding, heritage, ecology, tourism and transport. The selection also takes into account the proposed connections from the windfarms to the new substation by ScottishPower Energy Networks (SPEN) and SSE Renewables (SSE)."

In July the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (defra) published the Draft Water Bill. Under the proposals, which have been published for pre-legislative scrutiny, all businesses and public sector bodies in England will be able to switch their water and sewerage suppliers, allowing them to obtain more competitive prices, improve their efficiency and tender for services better suited to meet their individual needs.

According to defra, evidence suggests that opening up the water market and allowing businesses to switch supplier could deliver benefits to the economy of £2bn over 30 years. In Scotland, after similar reforms were introduced, the public sector alone is set to save around £20m over the following three years.