August 2013: The London Borough of Sutton has recently submitted evidence to the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee’s inquiry into ‘Local Energy. A number of interesting points are made in the borough’s submission, including:
- In terms of determining the level of appetite among local authorities to invest in their own medium-scale energy projects, Sutton respond that the number of local authorities have taken a key role in developing their own energy projects demonstrating that a desire for such projects exist
- Sutton has been progressing its own decentralised energy network over the last 12-15 months and there is a political desire to support this work
- Sutton has realised that it can address a number of its policies through taking a vested interest in this work such as addressing fuel poverty, controlling infrastructure spend in the Borough, improving security of supply as well as attracting residents and business to the area.
- Local government needs a much better understanding of project management and risk mitigation alongside a realisation that a Council has to be highly entrepreneurial in its approach to delivering public policy and services
The Energy and Climate Change Committee will publish its findings into its Local Energy inquiry tomorrow morning. See here for information.