On the day I became prime minister, I pledged to bring power to every postcode. Today, we begin to make good on that promise in the most literal sense. With nearly £30m of funding for People’s Power projects, communities across every nation of the UK will soon have the chance to build and control their own clean energy supply.
This investment means villages, towns and cities can harness the natural resources around them with solar panels on libraries, publicly owned windfarms, hydro schemes in their rivers, or whatever else works for them. The purpose is to put money back in people’s pockets while giving them a direct role in tackling the climate crisis.
Every council and community group awarded funding will have at least part-ownership in its renewable energy projects. That means, in the years ahead, more and more communities in Britain will do more than simply host solar panels and wind turbines. They will own a stake in them and retain a share of the wealth they create.
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Today’s announcement is part of this government’s sustained effort to make energy more affordable. In my first week in office, I said I would remove VAT from household electricity bills. From the beginning of October, that policy kicks in, giving families some much-needed breathing room. But the only lasting way to bring down bills is to produce more of our own clean, renewable energy at home, which People’s Power will achieve.
I am acutely aware that our changing climate is a major concern for many Britons, not least because we have just emerged from our hottest summer on record. Punishing heatwaves left nurses collapsing on hospital wards and bus drivers working in 40C cabs. Wildfires destroyed homes, leaving families with nothing. And more extreme weather is forecast in the months ahead. The climate crisis is not a distant threat. It is here and with us now. The British people are no longer insulated from the consequences, and they do not want to be excluded from the solutions. They are looking for ways to do their bit. Community energy gives them that chance.
Across Britain, people are taking back control of the things that matter to them: their pubs, their libraries, their leisure centres. Some have already done the same with energy. There are fine examples across the UK of community energy schemes that keep the lights on, the local economy moving and the benefits close to home.
These projects work and we want to take them nationwide. Today’s investment is the first down payment on a £1bn Great British Energy programme, the biggest investment in community energy ever, which will eventually fund more than 1,000 People’s Power projects.
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The climate crisis presents us with an enormous challenge and possibility. In the coming years, we need to change the way we travel, build homes and produce energy. I have long seen the green transition as the best chance we will ever have to reindustrialise Britain.
With this in mind, I believe there are two routes we can follow. There’s the traditional Whitehall way: make people pay for the change with more regulation and higher costs, and allow private companies to reap the rewards. Or we can pursue a different route: help people make the change by creating jobs, lowering bills and bringing power back to them.
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That is the approach I took as mayor of Greater Manchester. When we brought the buses back under public control, we capped fares and made the fleet cleaner. The result was a transport system designed around the needs of the people who pay for it and rely on it. We are applying the same principle to community energy.
I am determined that we meet the commitment on which Labour was elected and reach net zero by 2050. I want Britain to believe in itself again. That will not happen by asking people to stand still while the world spins around them. Everyone should have a say and a stake in their future. That is what No 10 North is all about. It is what today is about – it is community power in every sense. Power owned by local people, power generated by local projects and power returned to every postcode.
