Last Thursday 22 June, the Local Electricity Bill clauses, inserted into the Energy Bill by the Lords, were removed by the Bill Committee in the Commons.
The Minister, Andrew Bowie, said that the government is “considering other options that will better address” the real problems facing community energy, including “high start-up costs”. These options will be presented when the Bill returns to the House for Report Stage on 3 July, at which point the clauses may well be retabled for MPs to vote on.
We need to keep the pressure up on MPs and Ministers. If Ministers fear that MPs might actually vote the clauses through at Report Stage (the Bill has majority support in the House including by 128 Tory MPs) they will be more likely to come up with ‘options’ that are of real use to the sector. The number of letters that land on the Secretary of State’s desk before 3 July, especially from Conservative MPs, will make a material difference!
To find your MP’s name, email and preferred mode of address go to https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
Please write a very short email in your own words making these basic points.
Dear [MP name],
• Mention which CE organisation you belong to and very briefly what it has done/does. (If your MP is Labour you could thank them for the pledges of support in their Local Power Plan. If from other parties, don’t mention it.)
• Note that the Govt has deleted the Local Electricity Bill clauses 272 and 273 in the Energy Bill with no alternative proposals to support community energy.
• Community energy is essential to achieving net zero and delivers huge community benefit (give a few reasons and examples, eg taking people with us, mobilising local money, innovation, localisation – fuel poverty work….)
• If govt genuinely recognises the importance of community energy, it must support it to grow.
• Ask your MP to write to the Sec of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Energy Minister Andrew Bowie MP to urge them to put in place alternative plans to ‘turbocharge community energy’ as quickly as possible ahead of the Report Stage in early July.
• Ask your MP to vote for the LEB clauses at the Report Stage of the Energy Bill in July and to tell the Sec of State of their intention.
Thank them, perhaps invite them to visit your project, sign and add your address with a postcode in the constituency.
Thanks for your help, helping our sector!
Additionally we are meeting National Grid (Transmission) on 3 July to talk about grid connection issues. If any of your projects have been thwarted or delayed by grid connection issues please give us details in this very short survey so that we can best represent our members in the meeting.
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