UKs first solar electric power station at Fen Farm near Louth Lincolnshire. (Alamy)
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Reform councils could delay local green energy projects by up to a year, undermining the government’s net zero ambitions, a sector leader has said.
Adam Berman, Director of Policy at Energy UK, told PoliticsHome that small-scale projects, like those involving solar or batteries, require approval from local authorities and could be frustrated by Nigel Farage’s party as part of its campaign against net zero.
Richard Tice MP, Deputy Leader of Reform UK, has promised to “hinder” and “obstruct” green projects in Lincolnshire, where former Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns won the mayoralty for Reform UK earlier this month.
“We will attack, we will hinder, we will delay, we will obstruct, we will put every hurdle in your way,” said Tice.
“It’s going to cost you a fortune, and you’re not going to win. So give up and go away.”
On 1 May, Reform also won control of Staffordshire county council, where last year the local authority approved the development of a 143-acre solar farm.
Berman of Energy UK said Reform’s vow to frustrate green infrastructure plans could succeed in delaying projects.
“While major infrastructure projects are largely protected from local authorities intervening and blocking projects that are clearly in the national interest, it remains the case that small-scale projects, such as solar or batteries, go through local authorities for approval,” he said.
“Given the clear need for the country to decarbonise for cleaner energy, for cheaper energy, and more secure energy — and the fact that that is instilled within our legal framework — there’s only so much that local authorities can do, and really the worst case scenario is delays, and it will typically be a six to 12 month delay.”
Berman added that while Reform’s pledges to delay may not ultimately prevent plans, it could damage the government’s ability to hit net zero by its current deadline of 2050.
“In the context of the government’s clean power mission, and in the context of the need to accelerate our transition to net zero, it is clearly unhelpful that any of these projects are delayed — and delays will cost consumers at the end of the day,” he said.
“It will mean higher energy bills, and it will also mean costs for local councils in having to put up barriers to projects in legal costs, that local taxpayers will all pay for eventually through their council tax.”
Berman also said delays could deter investors, who will be paying attention to the latest developments.
“Even if we ignore the cost to the consumer, it’s also a cost to the investor as well. If this becomes a systemic problem across the country, it will have a systemic impact on investor confidence in clean technologies.”
When asked about the prospect of Reform-led councils obstructing green infrastructure projects, a government source told PoliticsHome it was a “fight” the Labour administration was willing to have, adding that green policies are popular with the public.
“We will take the fight to Reform on their anti-jobs, anti-growth, anti-British agenda in every community across the country,” they said, adding: “We will continue to make the patriotic case for energy independence and taking back control.”
Writing in The House on Tuesday, Labour MP Luke Murphy, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate, urged the government to stick to its guns on net zero in the face of the electoral threat of Reform.
“Despite Farage and Tice’s best efforts to make the climate crisis the latest frontier of a culture war, a majority of those who voted Reform in these [local and mayoral] elections support policies to keep the UK on track to meet its net zero targets,” he wrote.
“The message from voters of all colours is clear: we don’t want Trump-style climate denialism here.”
He warned the government that being seen as watering down its green agenda would risk losing “crucial” votes to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, who are more important to Labour’s electoral prospects than voters it is trying to back from Reform.
He wrote: “We can, and must, be confident in telling a story of our own — about how the transition to a cleaner, greener, and more secure Britain is helping to revive our nation’s industrial heartlands, make us safer and more independent, and ensure lower and less volatile energy bills.”
