Climate Change Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Baroness for that intervention. She is absolutely right: we must not allow this to appear to be about helping local authorities rather than their communities. Local authorities are there to serve their communities. Sometimes in Committee, we pore over the detail and tend to forget that the overarching objective is to change people’s behaviour. I believe that behavioural change will come with the incentive of reimbursement, and that reimbursement needs to be well managed if the scheme is to be effective. On the question of how long the pilots will last, that will be very much up to the local authorities. Obviously, the pilots have to be long enough for them to bed in and for their effects to be properly measured and reported on. However, if they go on for too long, we will all tire of waiting. The question of how long they continue will be decided through the designation process. I think that I have picked up the noble Baroness’s points but I apologise if I have not.