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Labour Energy Plan Gives Island Communities Power to Own Their Future



I welcome a major Labour government announcement that will give communities across the UK the power to control and benefit from their own energy projects.

 

Labour’s £1billion funding for the Local Power Plan represents the largest public investment in community energy in British history, putting power directly into the hands of local people while ensuring profits generated by clean energy stay in the communities where they are produced.

 

Announcing the Local Power Plan in the Commons Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security & Net Zero, paid tribute to my campaigns for community energy.

 

Mr Miliband told the Commons: “It would mean that when big projects are built by companies that local people and communities would be offered a stake in them.

 

“As my Honourable Friend, the Member for the Western Isles, has said – we need to move from a situation where communities can only aspire to be passive beneficiaries of projects owned by large companies to being owners themselves with benefits in perpetuity. From community benefit to community share and community stake.”

 

I have been championing community energy for in Parliament since being elected in 2024.

 

In the islands we have the largest concentration of community ownership in the UK, 23GW providing millions of pounds to local communities over years. We know how transformative community energy can be.

 

Labour is now enabling communities across the UK to take a real stake in the clean energy revolution.

 

But speaking in the Commons I said that to renew and expand the sector in the islands it was vital that community projects are given priority connections to the Western Isles interconnector to the mainland.

 

“I welcome what the local power plan has to say about tailored support for communities, but I would say there has to priority support from Ofgem and the grid operators and from this government to make sure communities benefit from the wealth of wind.”

 

Under the proposals, communities will be able to access funding, support and expert advice to develop local clean energy projects through ‘Great British Energy’, with a new one-stop shop for community energy removing barriers and speeding up delivery.

 

The plan is expected to unlock new investment for local projects, create island jobs, and strengthen energy security while giving communities a direct stake in the clean energy revolution.


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