WIREDGOV

Biggest ever public investment in community energy will cut bills and create revenue for community centres, social clubs and places of worship.

• Communities across the country to own and control their own energy with up to £1 billion of new funding for local energy projects. 
• Biggest public investment in community energy in history will drive ownership revolution, putting wealth and power into the hands of communities.  
• Community energy projects will cut bills and create revenue for places of worship, social clubs, community centres – supporting government’s Pride in Place agenda to revive towns and cities.

More communities across the UK will own be able to own and control their own clean energy projects, building community wealth and power through the government’s mission to take back control of the country’s energy and make people better off.  

Great British Energy and government are tomorrow (10 February) publishing the Local Power Plan, backed by funding of up to £1 billion, to help support locally-owned clean energy generation projects such as solar on community buildings like libraries, leisure centres and miners’ welfare clubs. 

The plan delivers the biggest public investment in community energy in this country’s history. Ownership is a transformative tool to build the wealth of local areas—giving people a stake in the places they live and generating pride, respect and local prosperity that can’t be dismantled.  

Community ownership is already transforming Britain, through community owned pubs, leisure centres and libraries; in the UK’s thousands of cooperative businesses and its proud cooperative movement; and in the pioneering community energy projects from Lawrence Weston in Bristol to the Isle of Skye Cooperative in the Hebrides to Westmill in Oxfordshire to the Geraint Thomas Velodrome in Wales.  

Community owned energy is the norm in other countries. In Germany, for example, around two-fifths of installed renewable energy generation capacity is citizen-owned. But despite its huge potential, for too long community energy in this country has been held back by a lack of funding, advice and central government support.  

The Local Power Plan is a transformative strategy to unleash the untapped dynamism, resources and enthusiasm of our communities, backed by up to £1 billion of funding from Great British Energy to support local projects that will cut bills and grow community wealth.

Click here for the full press release