Campaign group Power for People have thanked Geoffrey for supporting a proposed new law, known as the Local Electricity Bill. If made law, communities across the UK could buy their electricity from local, renewable sources, helping to reduce the UK’s dependency on volatile gas supplies. 305 MPs, nearly a majority of the House of Commons, have now put their name to the Bill.
Currently, customers can only purchase electricity from nationally licensed utilities. The national coalition supporting the Bill — including WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB — say this means that money people use to pay their energy bills is not helping to strengthen local economies or build new local clean energy generation infrastructure. Both are now more crucial than ever, as the UK works to combat the challenge of reducing our reliance on foreign gas imports — the price of which have soared amid the Ukraine conflict.
Power for People say if made law the Bill could mean community renewable energy growing twentyfold by 2030, taking it from 0.5% to 10% of UK electricity generation and bringing widespread knock-on economic and social benefits.
Geoffrey said:
“The Local Electricity Bill will empower and enable new community energy companies to sell energy they generate directly to local people, helping to strengthen the local economy. The Bill will also help accelerate our transition to clean energy, which is critical in avoiding the potential economic and ecological devastation of climate change. I am pleased to support it.”