Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to facilitate community renewable energy generation; what assessment he has made of the potential for the provisions in the Local Electricity Bill to achieve that; and whether he plans to support that Bill.

The Government is committed to achieving its net zero target by 2050 and is supportive of community energy, recognising the valuable role that community and locally owned renewable energy projects can and do, play in supporting our efforts to decarbonise the economy. The Government understands the role of community energy in raising awareness, increasing participation and, promoting the behaviour change necessary if we are to achieve both net-zero and a green recovery.

While the Government agrees with the broad intentions of what the Local Electricity Bill seeks to achieve and wants to see more local energy schemes as part of delivering a net-zero energy system, it does not support the Bill as the means to enable local energy supply.

The right to local energy supply already exists under the Electricity Act 1989 and Ofgem, the independent energy regulator, has existing flexibility to award supply licences that are restricted to specified geographies and/or specified types of premises. Changing the licensing framework to suit specific business models risks creating wider distortions elsewhere in the energy system, which could increase costs for other consumers and further unintended consequences.