Powering our communities with local renewable energy a ‘no-brainer’, says Bath MP

8 November 2022

Local Bath MP, Wera Hobhouse, championed community energy at the first Parliamentary event held by the Community Energy All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in partnership with Power for People, the National Trust and the countryside charity CPRE.

  • The inaugural event focused on the national campaign to enable communities to buy their electricity from local, community-owned renewable energy projects, helping to reduce our dependence on volatile gas supplies and keep energy bills down

  • Wera Hobhouse MP sat on a panel alongside Hilary Benn (Labour MP for Leeds Central), David Johnston (Conservative MP for Wantage), the National Trust and CPRE – all of whom are throwing their weight behind the campaign

“We are all here because we want to do the difficult thing.” Reflecting on the challenges of getting to Net Zero – cutting our greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible – Wera Hobhouse MP addressed a jam-packed room of people eager to rise to the challenge by empowering community energy.

Ms Hobhouse continued, “Community energy can play such an important role in this – delivering it locally and its benefits locally is absolutely a no brainer.”

Currently customers can only purchase electricity from nationally licensed utilities, meaning the money people use to pay their electricity bills is not remaining in the local economy or building new local clean energy generation infrastructure. Both are now more crucial than ever, as the UK works to combat the challenge of reducing our reliance on foreign gas imports and our greenhouse gas emissions.

One initiative to address these concerns, supported by Wera Hobhouse MP, is the Local Electricity Bill - a proposed law spearheaded by campaigning group Power for People. If made law, it would empower community energy groups to sell their locally generated renewable electricity directly to local households and businesses. The Bill’s supporters say this will level the playing field so that groups can run viable energy supply businesses and more local people can choose to power their homes and businesses with locally-generated renewable energy.

The proposed measure now has the support of 312 MPs - nearly a majority of the House of Commons. Power for People say if made law the Bill could mean community renewable energy growing twentyfold by 2030, taking it from 0.5% to 10% of UK electricity generation.

Power for People’s Director, Steve Shaw, commented:

“We thank Wera Hobhouse for championing community energy at the Community Energy APPG’s first Parliamentary event. Local renewable energy must bring community benefit. This approach would increase energy system security and prioritise the wellbeing of local communities simultaneously. Ms Hobhouse’s ongoing efforts to call for the Government to enable this are very welcome.”

The Government has so far not supported the measure. The campaign continues.