Labour will seek to persuade people living near proposed pylon routes and other renewable energy infrastructure that the developments are critical to bring down bills and tackle carbon emissions, the energy secretary said.
Ed Miliband promised to consider new benefits for communities affected by the construction of renewable energy infrastructure, and community ownership of the assets, which could include onshore windfarms and solar farms.
“Communities have the right to see the benefits,” he said, though he stopped short of specifying what measures Labour could take. Allowing local people a share in the projects could be one way, he added. “This is not just about community benefits but community shares, community ownership.”
He said the government would seek to minimise the impacts of new infrastructure on nature and the landscape. “We can integrate concerns about nature right at the beginning of the planning process,” he said. “There is a way of doing this that is positive for nature.”
Labour launched Great British Energy earlier this week, a nationally owned organisation that will invest billions in energy projects around the UK, including offshore wind. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, is aiming for 20m homes to be powered by offshore wind by the end of the decade, but that will require large amounts of new infrastructure, in the form not just of windfarms but grid connections and pylons to transport the power to where it is consumed.
Local groups have raised concerns about pylons and other infrastructure, and in some areas called for a pause while plans are scrutinised. Miliband indicated he was aware of the concerns but said that in his view the infrastructure was sorely needed to revive the UK economy and move to a clean energy future.
“I’m in the persuasion business, not the telling business,” he told a conference on Friday morning of the Labour Climate and Environment Forum, a group for Labour MPs with green leanings that intends to push the government towards more environmental policies. “Persuasion is very important.”
But he was uncompromising on the need for such new development. “If we do not have this infrastructure, we will have to carry on with fossil fuels, which is bad for nature and the climate crisis,” he said. “That is fundamentally the choice.”
Solving the cost of living crisis, with high energy prices a leading cause, would also be impossible without building new renewable energy generation, which would result in cheaper energy, he added. “My constituency, Doncaster, is seeing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation – are we saying to them we can’t build this infrastructure [that will reduce bills] and we can’t do anything about it?”
Miliband said his mission was to engineer a “just transition” for people in fossil fuel-dependent jobs, such as in the oil and gas industry. Many are concerned at losing well-paid jobs in these established sectors.
The energy secretary contrasted Labour with the previous Conservative government, which he said had shown little interest in equipping people with the skills and training needed for jobs in sectors such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and offshore wind.
“The truth is that the North Sea was declining under them, as it is declining under us,” he said. “But if you do not show any interest, you can’t expect the private sector to show any interest either.”
He said his department was becoming more of an “industrial policy department” than solely an energy department.
Green jobs could rejuvenate the UK economy, he added. “All the data I have suggests that the possibilities are enormous.”
