By Cllr Jason Brock
Local councils are not unlike most other workplaces, in that it can sometimes feel like, despite your best efforts, people keep putting obstacles in front of you.
This is exactly how it is with the issue of electricity supply in Reading, especially with local capacity issues threatening our response to the climate emergency.
This week, the Council’s Policy Committee heard how our efforts to ensure new homes in Reading achieve the highest possible energy rating are being hampered because of restrictions placed on electricity supply by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).
In essence, it means that larger housing developments in Reading – of 50 homes or more, for example – are currently struggling to source the electricity which is required to meet the Council’s local requirements for heat pumps or electric vehicle charging points.
When a developer recently required a connection to the grid to install heat pumps as part of a new housing development, their application was rejected by SSEN because of its local network restriction. It means that the number of heat pumps being installed as part of that development is likely to be reduced significantly and remaining properties may have to be fitted with gas boilers instead.
At a time when the Conservative Government is floundering around its environmental commitments, it seems that the unspoken truth is that poor planning and bad policy nationally means that the goals are unachievable anyway. Investing in the transmission grid never appealed to Ministers in the way that showier, ribbon-cutting-ready, projects did, but it’s absolutely essential to decarbonisation.
Planning policies are, ordinarily, far from exciting documents. They do however play an essential role in shaping the future development of any town or city and they are increasingly a key tool in any council’s armoury in helping tackle the climate emergency.
Each area has its own Local Plan which outlines sites, whether owned privately or by the Council, where future development is possible. Importantly, they also outline areas for protection and certain standards that need to be adhered to by developers wanting to build in the borough.
In Reading, we are proud that our Local Plan is closely aligned with our net-zero ambitions, and it is a key policy lever by which we can influence the delivery of sustainable new housing locally. Specifically, Reading’s Local Plan requires larger developments to install low carbon heating, which currently means heat pumps (in general terms, anyway).
The record of both our town and Council on reducing carbon emissions is impressive – the 4th largest cut of all 374 local authority areas according to last year’s figures – and our Local Plan plays a key part in this. And while the Council has reduced its own footprint by 71.3% in just 13 years, we remain ambitious to deliver even more sustainable infrastructure in Reading, including more large solar installations and new electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
It’s fair to say some of our own projects are threatened if a solution to local electricity supply issues is not progressed rapidly, because even electricity generation (as opposed to use) requires a grid connection of the sort that SSEN are rationing.
As is commonplace, the solution requires substantial investment in capacity issues and how electricity is allocated. The Council is now proposing to work with SSEN, partners and neighbouring local authorities to lobby central Government as needed. Without a solution, local councils and developers are effectively paralysed and locked into fossil fuels, which is a simply unacceptable position.
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and ward member for Southcote
