POWER FOR PEOPLE is a cross-party supported not-for-profit organisation that campaigns for the Local Electricity Bill in the houses of Parliament. It aims to remove obstacles to enable community-scale renewable energy schemes to sell energy directly to the communities in which they are based.
“The potential for community renewable energy to benefit local economies is being blocked by unfair regulations and hugely disproportionate costs.
Power for People
“We have drafted the Local Electricity Bill and are campaigning for it to be made law. This would give small-scale renewable energy a massive boost by empowering communities to sell their energy directly to local people.”
“If you want to buy your electricity from local renewable sources, such as the local school or sports hall that have solar panels on their roofs, you cannot. We all buy our electricity from a utility company that sources it from anything connected to the National Grid, be it a field of solar panels in Wiltshire or a gas fired power station in Yorkshire.”
If made law, the Local Electricity Bill would give electricity generators the right to become local suppliers – i.e. sell their energy directly to local people – and make it financially viable to do so. This could mean, for example, that a collective of residents or local organisations with solar panels on their rooves could sell cheap, green energy directly to local communities. Community renewable energy schemes would be supported which would help the transition to 100% clean energy while strengthening local economies.
A letter from Steve Shaw, Director of Power for People, says:
Let’s get the Secretary of State’s attention!
Our plan was to amend the Government’s Energy Bill in the House of Lords so that it included measures to enable community energy groups to sell their clean power locally for a fair price. At the beginning of September, Baroness Natalie Bennett and three of her fellow Peers put down amendments that we wrote that would do just that.
While these amendments were waiting to be debated, the change of Prime Minister and death of the Queen meant that Parliament’s progress grounded to a halt. Now the Energy Bill is on hold and will likely be scrapped.
This setback was out of our hands but it has not deterred us.
The Government is to introduce emergency energy legislation once the party conferences are concluded and Parliament returns on 11th October. This presents a new pathway for us: we plan to organise new amendments to this emergency energy legislation that would deliver what we are calling for. But the Government may try and block this, so we need to show them the strength of support there is for this campaign.
Ensuring that community energy groups are enabled to sell their clean power to local people is essential as it can help reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and our energy bills in tandem.
Urgent Action Request – Please write to your MP, Graham Stuart asking him to: ‘please write to the Secretary of State of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, asking that the Government include measures to support the growth of community energy schemes in any upcoming emergency energy legislation, such as the amendments to the Energy Bill proposed by Baroness Bennett (Amendments 237-238).’
Please send us any response you receive from your MP. Being aware of whatever your MP has said also helps us greatly.
Steve Shaw, Director of People for Power
Graham Stuart local Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness is now the Government’s Minister for Climate after being appointed on September 6, 2022. His support for the Local Electricity Bill would be deemed quite significant by the Power for People supporters. His email is grahamstuartmp@parliament.uk and he can also be contacted via his website www.grahamstuart.com/contact. Remember to include your full name and postal address to show that you are a constituent.
You can find much more about the Local Electricity Bill at the website: