Local Power Plan

Rachel Hopkins Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

The right hon. Gentleman will know that there is a planning process for all projects. I would gently point out to him—not specifically on his project, because I want to make a more general point—that if we are going to get the benefits of cheap, clean power, we need to build the transmission infrastructure. The biggest threat to the countryside is the climate crisis; it is the single biggest threat to biodiversity and nature. I am sure the right hon. Gentleman feels strongly about the specific issue he talked about, as do his constituents, but I do believe it is right to build the transmission infrastructure we need in order to lower bills for people and tackle the climate crisis.

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his announcement of the £1 billion in funding for community energy projects under Labour’s local power plan. Will he outline the benefits of community energy for constituencies like mine and set out how local communities can get involved and ensure that any profits are reinvested locally?

[Ed Miliband]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. Briefly, there are three important aspects to this: first, communities can have lower bills for their community centres and local institutions; secondly, they can generate a stream of income by selling power back to the grid; thirdly, there is something wider, and perhaps more intangible, which is the matter of giving local communities a sense of stake in the system. I think this is really important, because one of the ways that we gain consent from people is through the sense that it is not simply the big multinationals that will own our energy system, but local people themselves.