Campaigners thank Hastings MP for supporting community energy

• Ms Hart has been an ardent supporter of community energy for many years.
• At a debate on the Government’s Energy Bill, Ms Hart praised the Government for their recent work to promote community energy.
• Community energy could bring many new skilled jobs to local areas, reduce customers’ energy bills and inject fresh money into local economies across the nation, while helping the UK transition to Net Zero.

On 5th September, Sally-Ann Hart, MP for Hastings and Rye, spoke at a debate on the Government’s Energy Bill.

The Government had recently announced a new £10 million fund for community-led renewable energy projects across England, as well as a consultation to remove the barriers such projects face when setting up and a commitment to annual reporting. These new measures had come in response to a major national campaign for a Community Energy Revolution, backed by over half the House of Commons, including Sally-Ann Hart MP.

Ms Hart praised the Government for this new fund and called on them to address the barriers that community projects face when setting up.

Ms Hart said: “This new £10 million community energy fund, as well as the Government’s commitments to report annually and to consult on the barriers community energy projects face in accessing local markets, is excellent. It will breathe new life into a sector that has seen little growth for several years. I will continue to support measures to enable community-led renewable energy projects to spring up all over the UK, to the great benefit of their local areas and communities.“

Currently, community energy accounts for less than 0.5% of total UK electricity generation capacity. The potential, however, is vast: according to studies, the sector could grow twentyfold by 2030. This would create many new skilled local jobs, supercharge local economies and ensure that local people benefit from the UK’s transition to renewable energy through cheaper energy bills and better support for vulnerable customers.

The Community Energy Revolution campaign has been calling for the Local Electricity Bill to be made law, which would enable local projects to be able to sell their clean energy to local people. This could make thousands of new schemes financially viable.

Power for People’s Director, Steve Shaw, said: “Sally-Ann Hart has been a fantastic supporter of community energy. We thank her very much for her work to promote local-led renewable energy initiatives, which if allowed to thrive would do so much good for local communities across the UK. To see the massive growth in community energy schemes that studies say is possible, market reform is still needed. We look forward to the results of the new fund and the Government’s consultation process.”

A highlights video of the debate on September 5th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dqBYwfIiiU&ab_channel=PowerforPeople

A list of MPs, councils and organisations backing the Local Electricity Bill:

https://powerforpeople.org.uk/the-local-electricity-bill/support/

A short explainer of the Community Energy Revolution Campaign:

https://powerforpeople.org.uk/the-local-electricity-bill