Citizen power a step closer as Commons moves to slash red tape

The House of Commons today took an important step to allow citizens to produce their own sustainable heat and power when it gave a Second Reading to the Green Energy Bill promoted by Peter Ainsworth MP, supported by the Government and front and backbenches of all three main political parties.

The Bill, strongly supported by the Micropower Council, the leading body for the promotion of microgeneration, requires the government to produce a further strategy to grow the microgeneration sector, and to rip up specific red tape that is currently strangling parts of the sector.

The Green Energy Bill will:

• Require the government within 12 months to publish a revised Microgeneration Strategy. The strategy must include financial and fiscal measures to increase the uptake of microgeneration, improve the sustainability of local communities, create and sustain green jobs, and alleviate fuel poverty.
• Review the case for allowing agricultural and non-residential microgeneration applications to be installed without planning permission;
• Require the government by law to fulfil its long-promised commitment to removing the need for certified air source heat pumps and micro-wind turbines below a certain size and noise level to be installed in or on domestic premises without planning permission;
• Prevent increases in business rates or council tax directly as a consequence of the installation of microgeneration.

Dave Sowden, Chief Executive of the Micropower Council said: “We are delighted that Parliament once again is pushing the microgeneration agenda, and thank the Minister, Mike O’Brien, for lending government support to the Bill.

“In particular we welcome the government’s agreement to take a renewed strategic look at policy on microgeneration, and to the prospect of removing the last serious piece of red tape affecting micro-wind and air source heat pumps.

“The government promised to Parliament over a year ago that it would set the noise threshold for these technologies at 45dB, the level recommended by the World Health Organisation to avoid sleep disturbance. Companies have invested considerably and created hundreds of jobs against this promise, so it is crucial that the forthcoming consultation restates this strongly; any failure to do so could see businesses fold, will almost certainly cost jobs and have serious implications for industry’s and its investor’s confidence in government policy on microgeneration.”