Contribution
My Lords, I support Amendment 241 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale. I should have put my name to it and apologise to the noble Lord for not having done so, but I very strongly support this amendment; it is a very well-reasoned and proportionate response. As the noble Lord said, we worked together on a similar amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, so it is good to come back to this issue.
For clarity, local area energy plans—LAEPs—are data-driven spatial plans, led by local authorities, that map out how a place will decarbonise its buildings, transport and local energy infrastructure over time. They identify which low-carbon measures—such as heat pumps, heat networks, EV charging and local renewables —should go where, when and at what cost, using a whole-system approach. They create consistent, place-based and evidence-based guides for regional and national decision-making on the energy transition, helping to align local plans with network investment and regulation.
They are important because they turn our national net-zero targets into locally specific, cost-effective investment pipelines and give network operators, investors and communities a shared, evidence-based plan for the energy transition. They are the spearhead of the energy transition delivered at the local level in a way that is particularly suited to local needs. In energy terms, we are undertaking the biggest energy revolution since the start of the Industrial Revolution. For this to work, we need to work in conjunction with our local communities to empower them. Their empowerment is the key driver of this success.
The amendment is an important but measured enabling amendment that would help us move from high-level ambition on net zero and warm homes to the practical local delivery plans at ground level that we require. This amendment would not force the Minister’s hand but would require the Government to assemble the evidence, confront the barriers and set out a pathway for local area energy plans across the country. The energy transition is fundamentally a place-based endeavour and it needs to happen at the local level. Although the Government are acting—we recognise that and we welcome the warm homes plan, the energy systems catapult and the regional energy strategic plans—my worry remains that this landscape is still quite confused and not as joined up or as focused as we feel it needs to be for the delivery of these plans.
Decisions about where to reinforce electricity networks, where to zone for heat networks, where to focus on insulation or heat pump installation, and where to roll out EV infrastructure cannot sensibly be taken in Whitehall alone; they depend on the fundamental character of our local housing stock, patterns of local industry, levels of fuel poverty and the capacity of local grids. LAEPs are exactly the emerging tool designed to answer all these questions and help deliver these needs. In Wales, they are being rolled out and deployed at national level and they are the go-to choice for helping with the transition. Many local and combined authorities are also taking this initiative but my worry is that, despite some progress being made, it is patchy and uneven. What we have is really a postcode lottery when it comes to these local area energy plans.
This amendment fundamentally addresses that head on and asks the Secretary of State, within 18 months, to publish a report that would do four simple but important things. First, it would take stock of which combined, strategic and local authorities have developed LAEPs and which have begun to implement them. Secondly, it would identify the barriers, the funding gaps, the skill shortages, the data and any co-ordination problems. Thirdly, it asks for options to move, within a year of the report, towards a statutory requirement for LAEPs, so that local energy planning becomes the norm, not the exception. Finally, it would require proposals for the funding, technical support, training and capacity building needed to make these plans real, with clear criteria for how success will be measured.
This last element is really important and key to the amendment. Without support on skills, data and project development as a statutory requirement, this could be an underfunded mandate and lead to underdelivery. By requiring clear evidence criteria and successful metrics, it would ensure that Parliament, Ministers and local leaders can track which LAEPs are delivering lower emissions, lower bills and greater systems resilience. Without this, we risk moving to a piecemeal, scheme-by-scheme approach. We need to know where to go first, how to phase interventions and how to co-ordinate them with local energy systems, which is precisely what this system does. We have the warm homes plan with a lot of money going into it, but it is just not clear how these plans will integrate and work together.
This amendment is really asking the Government to do what a good Government should be doing: to understand what is happening on the ground, to identify what is getting in the way, to set out options for a clearer, consistent framework and to match any new expectations placed on local government with the right support. It is modest in its ask but potentially transformative in its consequences. I hope the Minister will see Amendment 241 not as a constraint on the department but as a constructive tool to help deliver our shared goal of achieving the energy transition.