Clean Power 2030 Action Plan: Rural Communities
Baroness Gill Excerpts(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Baroness Gill (Lab)
My Lords, it is a privilege to follow my noble friend Lord Nagaraju’s maiden speech. He is the first representative from the Telugu-speaking states in India. He has already introduced much of that diaspora to this House. I had the honour of meeting many of them, and his wife and daughter, at his introduction and at many events that he has organised subsequently. Through Labour Party organisations, including his founding of the Mahatma Gandhi Future Leaders programme, which was primarily about mentoring political leadership, I have known him as a person of relentless energy and commitment to work.
Moving on to his contributions to improving understanding of the AI field, my noble friend’s work reflects a clear commitment to the responsible advancement of technology and its role in society. As the founder of AI Policy Labs, he has brought together policymakers, academics and industry leaders to engage with the challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence. Through initiatives such as the UK-India collaboration on AI, he has encouraged international dialogue and co-operation in an area that is increasingly debated here and shapes our global future. His emphasis on ethical, inclusive and socially beneficial applications of AI is both timely and necessary.
In public life, my noble friend Lord Nagaraju’s continues to demonstrate a thoughtful, forward-looking approach, grounded in services and a sense of responsibility to wider society. His contributions lie not only in the ideas he promotes but in the conversations he enables and the bridges he helps to build. I am sure that he will play a critical and valuable role in your Lordships’ House.
Moving on to the main topic, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, for getting this on to the Order Paper. The UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan sets out a bold and necessary ambition to deliver a cleaner, more secure energy system by the end of the decade. In today’s uncertain world, doing nothing is not a serious option, but it raises important questions: if not here, then where, and if not now, then when? Developments in the Middle East and earlier in Ukraine highlight the necessity to have independent sources of power. It is important that we all play our part in communicating that fossil fuels do not give any area of this country security of supply.
Having represented in the past five counties with numerous rural communities, I have seen just how difficult it is to strike the right balance. Rural communities are not against progress; they understand the need for clean energy, investment and energy security. But they are also being asked to change. The reality is that much of the infrastructure needed to deliver this plan will be built in rural areas. Wind farms, solar developments and new grid connections do not appear in abstract; they appear in real landscapes and near real communities. So we must ask: can we expect the benefits of clean power without being willing to host part of the solution? That is the challenge.
Rural communities often want development but not always the change that comes with it, and that tension is entirely human. But I believe this plan also brings many opportunities to rural communities in terms of investment, jobs and a chance for rural Britain to play a leading role in securing our energy future, and the Government have recognised the need for community benefit and engagement as part of the process.
The real question is not whether change will happen but whether we shape it in a way that is fair. In my experience, impact assessments can be lengthy, time-consuming exercises and will only delay the implementation, whereas engaging now with the proposals that the Government have put forward will start to show results sooner rather than later. If we get this right, rural communities will not just carry the burden of change but will share the rewards. That is how clean power 2030 will succeed, not just nationally but locally too.
Local Power Plan
Baroness Gill Excerpts(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Gill (Lab)
My Lords, this is a most welcome initiative. Energy poverty and security of supply have been a real concern for years for people in many parts of our country. I have three short points that I would like my noble friend the Minister to address. Does this mean that the consumer will get improved energy security and resilience? Will it save them money on their energy bills once the scheme is up and running? How does the local power plan balance affordability, reliability and decarbonisation under the worst-case scenarios, and what trade-offs are we prepared to make if there is a conflict in our goals?
Lord Whitehead (Lab)
I thank my noble friend Lady Gill for her carefully thought-out contribution. These are questions that we need to make sure we have got right as far as a local power plan is concerned.
The first thing I can say is, yes, the local power plan will start saving people substantial amounts of money on their bills. That will not necessarily be absolutely everybody under all circumstances, but certainly, provided that the local power plan is carried out properly, there will be lots of opportunities for the return on the investment that has been put into local communities through those schemes to come back in some instances directly off people’s energy bills.
As I mentioned in response to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, one of the things that we are doing is making sure that we have all the back-up material for the local power plan, which would give effect, for example, to people’s ability to trade locally, although that may require legislation. But that will mean, in conjunction with code changes, for example, there will be an ability of local power projects to deliver direct benefits, not just in the traditional way of the developer giving a little bit of money to the local community to help the village hall or whatever. This is about real changes not just in people’s energy relationship; the fact that they own the energy themselves and can get direct benefit from it will, I think, quite transform the local scene.
By the way, because that is all local and if it can be integrated with local power systems generally, it will add quite considerably to the resilience of the country’s energy supplies. It is all based in the UK, it goes around in the UK, the benefit comes out in the UK and it is a considerable addition to the energy security of our country. I hope that my noble friend can take some assurance that we have thought about all these issues and are determined to make sure that they are firmly a part of the local power plan as it rolls out.