The East of England LGA is running a series of free roundtable discussions in 2024 and 2025. These sessions are open to all councils in the East of England and their partner organisations. At the EELGA roundtable, you will hear from a guest speaker on each theme and have an opportunity to learn from, and share your own examples of, best practice, opportunities, and challenges.
The East of England has a massive role to play in the ongoing energy revolution. Power from our region currently caters to the equivalent of 32% of all households in the UK, and by 2035, it could power the equivalent of 90% of all homes in the country. It’s also a huge economic driver in our region, employing 85,000 people and generating £17bn in turnover per year.
While much of this discussion centres around the colossal transmission and generation projects within the region, the technology required to generate our own power is also becoming increasingly mature. Given the constraints of the grid locally, community energy generation may prove to be a useful tool for boosting growth, enabling business, and crucial to increasing the region’s energy resilience in the event of further energy shocks.
In this roundtable, we want to discuss how local authorities can encourage local energy generation projects within their area, and what the merits and drawbacks such an approach can have. In particular, we would be interested to hear case studies of such work being undertaken across the region, join up existing practitioners to share best practice, and investigate what barriers need to be overcome to promote more home-grown green energy. Likewise, we would also like to discuss the planning ramifications of such sites, examining how the proposed changes to the NPPF could influence how energy is generated in the region.
Agenda and speakers to follow shortly.
Who should attend: Local councillors and officers, registered housing providers, the health and voluntary and community sectors.
Please note: if this session is oversubscribed places will be limited to 2 – 3 people per authority.
If you have any queries please contact Matthew Stewart, Policy and Programmes Manager, East of England LGA, email; matt.stewart@eelga.gov.uk