Ed Miliband has confirmed some communities impacted by new pylons will get money off their power bills.
The energy secretary unveiled the plans as part of the government’s drive to dramatically step up the energy transition as it races against time to ensure a vast majority of the UK’s power is cleanly generated by 2030.
In an interview with Metro, Miliband said: ‘The principle for this government is, if you host clean energy infrastructure in your community, you should benefit from it.’
Among the other incentives offered to people living near such sites will be ‘community funds for solar and wind’, he added.
Meanwhile, decisions on infrastructure plans will be made depending on how ready they are to go ahead, rather than the ‘first come first served’ system Miliband said was currently in place.
And an overhaul of the planning process will mean the power projects that are deemed most critical will be prioritised.
‘For a long time, we haven’t really planned our energy system,’ Miliband said.
‘We’re going to have to plan what we build, where we build it, and when we build it, and that hasn’t been done for generations now.’
He added: ‘It also means making some decisions that I think are the right decisions, but some people may not support – for example, the need for large onshore wind farms.
‘So we’re being optimistic about what we can achieve. We’re also being clear that it is going to be a big change in the way we do things. And the prize here is lower bills and energy security.’
Miliband’s announcement comes a week after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made putting the UK on track for 95% clean power by 2030 one of the six milestones he wants to reach by the end of this Parliament.
Labour’s election manifesto pledged to achieve ‘clean power by 2030’, which some interpreted as meaning 100% of power generated.
But the energy secretary said a target of 100% was ‘something that is really for the longer term’, and it is a ‘lesser issue for us’ as the amount of gas power in the system would be ‘pretty much negligible’.
Asked if the sheer scale of the changes needed would inevitably lead to disruption in people’s lives, he disagreed, saying: ‘We want this to be for everybody.
‘So this is very much not about sticks, this is very much about kind of incentives and help for people.’
Miliband continued: ‘One of the things that we’ll be introducing in the coming two or three years is different tariffs at different times of day, which will give people benefits from being able to run their appliances at different times.’
People who are able to program their dishwasher or washing machine to run in the middle of the night when demand on the grid is lower should benefit from doing so, he argued.
He added: ‘We know that the cost of living crisis that still castle on shadow over the country was caused by our reliance on fossil fuels, international gas markets we don’t control.
‘There is only one way to get back control of our energy system, and that’s with clean, home grown power.’
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