Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what lessons they have taken from the report by the Poverty and Environment Trust, Overwhelmed and Oversubscribed, published in August; and what is the timetable for bringing forward legislation to establish local supply rights for community energy schemes.

This Government is hugely ambitious about the role that local energy will play in achieving our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower.

Officials read the report with interest and thank the Poverty and Environment Trust for their work on it.

Alongside delivering the 2025/26 Great British Energy Community Fund, Great British Energy is expected to work closely with Community Energy Groups, providing commercial, technical and project-planning assistance to increase their capability and capacity to build a pipeline of successful projects in their local areas, in addition to feasibility funding support.

We recognise the requests to take steps to better enable local energy markets and trading to lower bills, support renewables and increase the resilience of the electricity networks. The Department is currently investigating barriers to local supply, and is working with Ofgem, Great British Energy and relevant stakeholders to find solutions that work in the best interests of local generators and consumers.