Energy Bill [HL]

My Lords, in rising to speak about local authorities and to support my noble friend, I declare an interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association. Like my noble friend, I am concerned about the role of local authorities. If we are going to succeed in all our efforts around climate change and reducing our energy consumption, we have to involve citizens and their local communities and councils. The purpose of the new clause proposed in Amendment 31, which is grouped with my noble friend’s amendment, is to do just that. It is not specifically about the Green Deal; it is about energy plans and local authorities. Although it would be placed later in the Bill, for the purposes of our debate it is about the role of local authorities. I am particularly concerned about the role of local councils, as Clause 102 of the Bill repeals the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995, an Act that, as I said at Second Reading, I was successful in getting through when I was a Member of another place. I believe that that Act has successfully driven a lot of local authority action since 1995. It has had very good results. Involvement, for me, means the active empowerment of citizens and of their local authorities; it is not just about consultation. Noble Lords may ask why this is so important. I think that it is because local authorities have been seen to have very good ideas. Indeed, it is probably what is driving the localism agenda, which is something that I and my colleagues have believed in for a long time and which now nearly everybody seems to believe in. It has become clear that not everything can be driven from the centre and that the centre is not the only place where there are good ideas. I believe that, unless we involve and empower people—my noble friend touched on this in talking about his amendment—we are not going to succeed. If people do not understand what they are doing and do not feel that they want to be involved, this whole thing will not work. I do not intend to speak at great length. The new clause is long. It sets out one way, in the framework that we have, of involving local authorities and making sure that they are looking at sustainable energy in their area. It will give councils a power to draw up sustainable energy plans and to some extent fill the gap left by the repeal of the Home Energy Conservation Act in a way that fits in with the thrust of this Bill as a whole and, indeed, with the whole agenda that this Bill forms part of. Many might say that the power is not sufficient and that only the keen will act on it. However, there are some carrots and sticks that I hope will give a greater chance of action. As I say, I do not expect the Government to pick up the whole of this new clause, but I will be pleased if it sets some ideas running about how we can involve local authorities. The carrots are that the council can put in its plan a request for a transfer of powers, or a new power, to help to achieve energy policy objectives, to which the Government will need to respond. The presumption is that, if the plan is good, the Government will respond positively. Perhaps even more attractively, in these cash-strapped days, if a plan contains measures that are more cost-effective than current measures, the council will get the money to implement those measures. This is not a spending pledge, because the council will not get the money unless the new measures are more cost-effective than the others. It has been suggested that this could perhaps create a market in cost-effective measures. The stick is that the proposal is bottom-up, not top-down, and the power to draw up sustainable energy plans becomes a duty if a percentage of voters petition a council to do so. This is very much in keeping with the philosophy of the Government’s Localism Bill. I know that my noble friend the Minister is keen to involve local councils in energy efficiency, so I hope that he will be able to explain a little more, as my noble friend said, how the Government see local authorities’ involvement in this field. I was pleased to read in the Newcastle Journal this morning that the Department of Energy and Climate Change has awarded almost £250,000 to Northumberland County Council to develop work in connection with carbon reduction in local communities. I know that the Government are keen on this. We are also keen, as part of that Government, that local authorities should play an important role. I hope that the Government can take away this amendment and see whether they can use it in any way. I certainly look forward to hearing what my noble friend has to say about the important role of local authorities.