Local Power Plan

Terry Jermy Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

Yes is the answer to that question. Community energy includes all kinds of innovative projects. As we open these funds for bidding—both from local authorities and community groups—we will find local people coming forward with innovative, imaginative ideas for how to drive this scheme forward. I suspect that we will be overwhelmed with the imaginative innovation that we see, and that is what is so exciting about this.

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

It is quite clear that communities that host energy projects should in some way benefit from them. I welcome that principle being incorporated into this plan. I particularly welcome the Government’s support for rooftop solar for Swaffham community hospital in South West Norfolk, not just from an environmental point of view, but as a way of reducing the energy cost of public services; that saving can be reinvested in the frontline. Will my right hon. Friend commit to tracking the financial benefit of these proposals, so that we know the true benefit for communities up and down the country?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. As a super nerd, I am very interested in that kind of impact analysis. Sometimes Governments do things but do not track their impact, so they cannot prove the difference that a scheme has made. His point is very important, as is the one about Swaffham hospital. The work that GB Energy is already doing on schools and hospitals is making a difference to public services up and down the country.