Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which (a) principal and (b) parish councils have set up (i)by themselves and (ii) with others local energy generation schemes.

The Department does not hold a register of local authority local energy schemes.

National Planning Policy Guidance and Planning Policy Guidance stipulate that plans should provide a positive strategy for renewable and low carbon energy and heat. Planning authorities should support community-led initiatives for renewable and low carbon energy, including developments outside areas identified in local or strategic plans that are being taken forward through neighbourhood planning.

In 2017, the Clean Growth Strategy, which supports the Industrial Strategy, announced a Local Energy Programme, which supports local actors, community groups, local authorities and combined authorities to develop their own energy strategies and deliver their own energy programmes.