Go Zero

Extract from Smartest Energy News 10 Sept 2007

The New Local Government Network (NLGN) proposed on 28 August that households should receive council tax rebates for installing micro-generation solar panels and wind turbines.
The NLGN report, Finding the energy––Domestic micro-generation and planning, argues for more ambitious reforms to the planning regime to encourage a faster and more widespread adoption of domestic micro-generation. It examines the government’s current proposals for reforming the planning system to promote domestic micro-generation, and proposes that councillors should direct neighbourhood level consultation processes towards creating local regulations that are more permissive than national minimum standards. It also says that legislation on local planning flexibility should be amended “to reflect this new level of public probity.”
The report says the impending planning bill, as well as other government non-legislative reforms, will be “vital for deciding in years to come how well the planning regime aids the fight against climate change.” It also says local authorities could introduce “substantial” council tax rebates for those households that install domestic micro-generation equipment not requiring planning consent. If local authorities find a rebate approach too onerous, then alternative incentives could include helping to make the financial benefits of micro-generation “more tangible to householders from the date of installation.”
To address the issue of long payback periods, NLNG says local authorities could introduce loans for householders to pay for micro-generation installations to be repaid over the lifetime of the equipment.
NLGN believes the micro-generation performance grant should be measured in the new comprehensive area assessment regime and funding routed through the second wave of Local Area Agreements (LAA). It could also be designed to be more valuable than the cost of council tax rebates where the local authority reaches and/ or exceeds the target negotiated through the LAA and could form a part of the local government grants regime and be cost neutral for central government.
The proposal depends not so much on planning changes but on the incentives that would ultimately have to be provided by central government. NLGN’s thinking highlights the sort of measures that would be required if micro-generation is to play a greater role in tackling climate change.

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