Community Power is Possible

With the support of £1 billion from GB Energy, the UK’s new state energy company, we can generate and benefit from energy produced in our own communities. As we transition to clean power, we have the chance to build an economy that works for local people and the planet rather than rich oil companies.

The Co-operative Party has long campaigned for publicly owned and community-controlled power, and this made it into the Labour manifesto.

The Government’s Local Power Plan is the biggest public investment in community energy in our history, backing more than 1,000 local clean energy projects in libraries, leisure centres and community spaces.

Cornwall is already seeing the benefits of GB Energy, with funding for solar panels on hospitals and schools to cut energy bills. And £40,000 was recently awarded to Community Energy Plus for the Cornwall Home Upgrade Hub, to help households reduce energy use and costs.

We have strong foundations for local power. Under the Low Carbon Communities Challenge launched in 2009 under the last Labour government, Low Carbon Ladock received £500,000 to invest in solar panels on homes, biomass boilers, and ground‑source and air‑source heat systems. Profits have since funded a safer school crossing, improvements to the playing field and more renewables.

The Local Power Plan is a move towards greater energy security for the future, local prosperity, and a fairer system. It shows that locally owned, clean power is not only possible but ready to go.