‘The Local Power Plan is launching an ownership revolution’

Labour’s Local Power Plan puts power back where it belongs: in the hands of local people.

This week’s announcement will drive the biggest expansion of community-owned energy in history, giving people a say and a stake in their energy production, and building community wealth. 

Our government has already taken action to support locally-owned energy generation with Great British Energy funding solar panels for schools and hospitals, saving millions of pounds that is now invested back into education and frontline services.

The Local Power Plan goes even further, by funding and supporting energy co-operatives so people can produce and own their own projects. 

READ MORE:‘Can Labour win back young people on the environment?’

These projects are about far more than producing electricity. They are about local ownership, local decision-making and local benefit. Instead of money flowing to distant shareholders, it stays right where it is made, strengthening our communities. Profits are capped and reinvested close to home, creating sustainable income for the places that matter most to us – such as community centres, places of worship and social spaces that bring people together. These are the foundations of strong neighbourhoods, and community energy offers them a reliable way to grow and thrive.

I know from working in the renewable energy and clean technology industry that large-scale projects are vital if we are to create a more resilient, affordable and secure energy system. Our local area benefits from the jobs and investment coming from Sizewell C, for example, already delivering 300 out of the 500 jobs I negotiated for Ipswich three months after my election.

However, community-owned energy shouldn’t be seen as a bolt-on or nice-to-have. Instead, it should be a central part of our energy mix given its efficiency, flexibility and potential to rejuvenate our local areas.

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The Local Power Plan now means that beloved community spaces can now access funding for local energy projects. These projects will cut their bills, protecting the future of these spaces and the resilience of our towns and high streets. Profits from these energy projects can also be directed back into the community via grants. The East of England Co-operative set up their Community Cares fund in April 2020, and since then has given over 250 grants to organisations like Cancer Support Suffolk, and Hope Church in my constituency. 

The Local Power Plan matters not only because it lowers bills and tackles climate change via clean energy projects. It matters because we trust local communities to make the decisions about their own backyards, and to protect that which they hold dear. Wealth should not just be granted from Whitehall nor trickled down via big business. Wealth can be generated and owned by communities, and the Local Power Plan enables people right across the country to do just that.

Co-operatives are built to serve their communities: when people work together, share ownership and reinvest locally, everyone benefits. It is a simple idea but not one that has always had government backing. As a Labour MP elected in 2024, I am one of dozens of Labour and Co-operative MPs, and the co-operative movement is represented right across government in different departments. We were all elected on a manifesto pledge to deliver growth for the country, and to double the size of the co-operative and mutuals sector.

I represent a constituency and a region where this model has deep roots: the East of England Co-operative actually began in 1861, with a small group of people beginning to trade together and reinvest profits for the common good. These small groups of people across the country – following in the footsteps of the Rochdale pioneers in 1844 – founded the co-operative movement as we know it today.

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As our Labour government seeks to deliver on our growth mission, to stabilise the economy for the good of working people, we must build growth with communities at the centre. Too often when we talk about economic growth, people will ask: but for who? We know that the trust in a trickle-down economic system has been broken, that too often the model of centralised decision making and distant wealth hoarding has let down communities across the country. Co-operatives and community enterprises must play a core part in restoring an economy that works for everyone and delivers for communities. 

I’m proud to support the Local Power Plan, the biggest expansion of community-owned energy in our country’s history, and to be part of a government that, finally, trusts communities to shape their own futures. 

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