Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Commission on Climate

Anne-Marie Trevelyan Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

I begin by congratulating my friend, the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) on securing this important debate this evening. I take a moment, if I may, to recognise the excellent work done by Baroness Brown and the commission in producing the report of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Commission on Climate Change. The report is testament to the drive and ambition that local areas have in supporting the country’s transition to a cleaner, greener future, and I know that across the UK, our local areas have already made great strides towards this future, including Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which are demonstrating that in spades.

This Government recognise the important role that local areas play in helping drive progress towards our national climate change commitments. As you are now aware, Madam Deputy Speaker, the report makes a number of recommendations to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and to central Government. While sadly I do not have the time to address each recommendation in turn, I commend these first four areas, which in and of themselves demonstrate the enormous challenges we face as a country. We will have a close look at the peat area, which is of particular note to me as I have a large area of peat in my constituency, too. It is something that we need to work on in a considered way to make good progress.

The recent National Audit Office report “Local government and net zero in England” identifies £1.2 billion in grant funding available this financial year for local authorities to act on climate change and notes that that is a sixteenfold increase on the previous year. In addition to this grant funding, the local energy programme of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is providing direct support to local enterprise partnerships, local authorities and communities in England to play a leading role in decarbonisation and clean growth. The programme was announced in 2017 as part of the clean growth strategy.

Almost £22 million has been invested to date via the programme, including £13 million in funding for five local energy hubs across England, including one in the greater south-east region that provides direct support to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area. For example, the hub has funded several community organisations to develop locally owned energy projects, including a project for three villages—Great Staughton, Perry and Grafham—to transition to renewable heat through a ground or water source heat pump.

Last week, the hub worked closely with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to host the first event of the race to zero carbon tour. The tour will continue across the UK in the run up to COP26 and aims to share those local stories of decarbonisation with business, local authorities and communities.

The Government are also providing specific sectoral support to other areas, including a suite of measures to help local authorities to decarbonise heat and buildings through higher standards in planning and construction. For example, the local authority delivery phase 2 scheme, which aims to improve the energy efficiency of low-income households, has awarded more than £79 million to the energy hub to cover upgrades to homes in all 141 local authorities covered in the south-east. Further details on the immediate actions that we will take for reducing emissions from buildings, as well as our approach to the key strategic decisions needed to achieve a mass transition to low-carbon heat across the UK, will be outlined, as the hon. Member said, in the heat and buildings strategy, which will be published in due course.

I hope you will agree, Madam Deputy Speaker, that some excellent work is already under way to support local areas in reaching net zero. Further plans for the role of local authorities in meeting net zero will be outlined in the net zero strategy, which is currently under development—the hon. Member will be pleased to hear that it is keeping me very busy—and due to be published before COP26.

I thank the hon. Member once again for securing the debate. I reiterate that the Government are committed to supporting local areas in the transition to net zero. We understand that local areas are key to the Department’s wider efforts both to decarbonise our country and create a cleaner, greener future for us all as well as adapting to those climate impacts already with us and invest in resilient solutions to protect both lives and livelihoods. The report will help as a guide for so many of those climate-vulnerable countries that I am visiting and working with as the champion on adaptation and resilience for COP26. These are issues that affect us all. From Cambridge to Kathmandu, these challenges are with us now, and communities, counties and countries are having to get to grips with how they become more resilient while they move to clean energy. I thank all those who have worked so hard on the report, which will be a huge resource not only for the area but in helping others who want to find ways through this complex maze to reach a place where we can transition so that all those whom we support live in a cleaner, greener way that ensures that their families can have a safe planet for the future.

Question put and agreed to.