Politics
The House | Ignore the naysayers: Labour’s Local Power Plan shows you can have your cake and eat it
Solar installation in a village near Grimsby, UK (Alamy)
4 min read
Being a Labour MP in 2026 means both reminding yourself that the road to recovery is a long one, but also constantly asking how we can go faster.
It’s hard to overstate – and I won’t try to – the mess that this government inherited less than two years ago. I’m proud of the work we have done so far on bringing down bills and supporting families, but there’s still so much to do. I also know the immense love that people have for the places they live, and the fear that these towns and neighbourhoods won’t survive another disastrous mini-budget or energy crisis.
The resilience of our communities is vital to both our economic recovery and our social fabric – and today’s Local Power Plan launch places them at the very heart of our energy system. Communities across the country will be able to produce and own their own energy with our new fund, delivered by Great British Energy. Not only will shifting power into the hands of communities reduce our reliance on energy produced and owned abroad, it will tackle climate change, bring down bills and preserve our community hubs.
It is energy funded by, produced by and owned by my community – and we all share in the wealth it generates
In coastal constituencies like mine, people are worried about the impact of climate change – with many households and businesses at risk of tidal flooding and flooding from the Freshney. My community and others across Lincolnshire are well aware of the dangers of rising sea levels and increased heavy rainfall. Many of my constituents remember the 2007 floods, where pensioners were lifted from their houses by their neighbours and children kayaked down the roads. Some even remember the devastating 1953 flooding, when 307 people lost their lives and 30,000 people had to be evacuated.
These floods were once reckoned to be once-in-a-century events, but they are increasingly frequent. Impacts on insurance costs, housebuilding and selling mean that climate change doesn’t just mean uncomfortably hot summers for my community: it’s an impact on personal financial security; on the savings and assets we thought would be safe for our retirement and our children.
Yet climate change can still feel like a distant issue for many of my constituents when they are confronted every day by the high cost of living. It is hard to worry about every choice you make being ‘green’ when your main aim is to get through the month and hope you have a little left over. Rising energy bills also affect the viability of our beloved institutions to stay open – threatening our pubs, our leisure centres, our social clubs, and making life feel that little bit worse. These spaces aren’t just places to have a pint or play snooker – they’re places where people come together to have a chat and a laugh, where neighbours and colleagues become a community.
In Grimsby and across the country, communities are already taking action to bring down bills and help their communities thrive. Energy co-operatives raise money from their members to install, produce and own their own clean energy projects in their communities. Members not only get money back from their investment, either by cheaper bills or a stable interest return, they also decide how to reinvest the rest of the profits back into their community.
For example, Grimsby Community Energy was set up in 2016, and has installed solar panels across 10 buildings for different community assets, including our food bank, an apprentice centre, and our local YMCA. These organisations now pay less for their bills, investors get a stable rate of return, and it has established a community fund where the co-operative gives out grants for local community improvements. It is energy funded by, produced by and owned by my community – and we all share in the wealth it generates.
I am so pleased about the opportunities that today’s Local Power Plan offers my community and others like it across the country. The support and funding that the Local Power Plan offers is the biggest public investment in community energy in this country’s history. It gives people a stake in their community, and makes it easier for them to both invest and reap the benefits. Communities can take back control of their own energy, support and invest in beloved local institutions, bring down bills and tackle climate change all at once.
There are so many people in politics who want us to believe that things can only get worse, that seek to divide and discredit our communities. It’s policies like the Local Power Plan – learned from and delivered by grassroots groups up and down the country – that proves them to be deeply wrong.
Melanie Onn is Labour MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes
