Environmental sustainability under a Labour government: Impacts of the legislative programme

It was made clear immediately following the General Election that the Government’s priority would be
mission-driven government: a focus on its five stated missions to:

• kickstart economic growth;
• make Britain a clean energy superpower;
• take back our streets;
• break down barriers to opportunity; and
• build an NHS fit for the future.

Many, if not all, of these missions demonstrate a position on sustainability. Some key decisions were taken swiftly – including the lifting of the de facto ban on new onshore wind development in a policy statement published on 8 July (just four days post-election) and approving solar farm development which had been blocked under the previous administration just days later. This demonstrates a commitment to the second of these missions to make Britain a clean energy superpower. While there is still much fleshing out of these missions to be done, details have already emerged around a number of key legislative priorities. We focus below on the key environmental impacts from the proposed and draft legislative programme.

Great British Energy

The Great British Energy Bill is central to the Government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower, but it has implications for local authorities and the wider public sector. The Bill has a way to go yet, but the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the founding statement for Great British Energy (GBE) which emphasises how it will work collaboratively with local authorities, communities and other public sector organisations to deploy energy solutions. This is a key part of the Government’s strategy to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030 and reach its net-zero targets.

The Bill promises £8.3bn of new money over the life of this Parliament. One limb of GBE’s approach is the
adoption of the Local Power Plan (LPP). This is not a plan in a traditional sense, but a commitment that the Government will make available up to:

• £400 million of low-interest loans available to community groups; and
• £600 million of funding for local and combined authorities to develop up to 20,000 small and medium-scale renewable energy projects.

It is unclear exactly how the funding/loans will be allocated, but presumably, it will be via the traditional
route of funding rounds with an application process. Applicants won’t be left on their own, as GBE has committed to providing commercial, technical and project planning assistance to enable access to funding and the development of successful schemes. This will help applicants navigate what can be a complex planning and regulatory landscape for schemes of this nature.

A proportion of the profits of the schemes funded under the LPP will be used to benefit the communities they are built in – for example, by lowering the energy bills in the area. This level of investment also undoubtedly has the potential to generate jobs in the community to construct, maintain and operate these renewable energy schemes.

At the moment there is limited detail around how the LPP is going to be delivered, but if the Government intends to make real progress towards the decarbonisation of the electric grid by 2030, it is likely that this scheme will be crystallised soon.

The Bill also recognises the importance of a strong supply chain to the delivery of energy security and the intention is that GBE will work with the industry to accelerate the deployment of projects and support the transition to clean energy using domestic manufacturing and supply chains. This is expected to include a comprehensive package of support for those domestic supply chains and a focus on boosting the creation of skilled jobs within relevant industries. This is a promising sign that the pitfalls of previous rounds of decarbonisation funding (both the PSDS and the SHDF) have demonstrated as a result of a lack of a well-developed supply chain and impossibly challenging timescales for procurement and delivery of retrofit works.

Nature recovery and development

A new Planning and Infrastructure Bill is proposed. This is mainly focused on infrastructure and renewable energy but also includes proposals to improve local planning decision-making (and we consider planning implications from the new Government elsewhere). A key environmental pledge is the proposal to use development to fund nature recovery where both the development, and nature recovery, have stalled. This, like many Bills, comes with a definite ‘watch this space’ sign attached, and we await further details of how this proposal might work in practice.

Procurement

The implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 has been pushed back – to February 2025 – and in the
meantime, the existing National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) was withdrawn. The Government undertook a swift informal consultation exercise (which closed in early November) with a view to understanding how an updated NPPS could be used to further the Government’s five stated missions, and how a mission-driven approach to procurement could support delivery of those missions alongside local priorities. We await the new NPPS with interest, as an emphatic expectation from the Government that procurement processes and spending should be mission-led has the potential to be a powerful tool for the delivery of environmental, social and economic sustainability through public spend.

Environmental targets

The Environmental Targets (Public Authorities) Bill was introduced in the House of Lords as a Private Members’ Bill (rather than being a government-driven initiative). First introduced in September 2024, this Bill proposes to make provision for a statutory objective requiring public bodies to contribute to the delivery of the targets that are set under the Environment Act 2021 and the Climate Change Act 2008 and to place a duty on public bodies to meet this objective in the exercise of their functions.

There has long been a disconnect between government-set environmental targets, and the essential role that the public sector as a whole must have if those targets are to be met. Those targets are legally binding on but the Government but require significant input and action from across the public sector (and wider). The current targets (made under the Sunak Government but still in place) are to:

• halt the decline in species populations by 2030, and then increase populations by at least 10% to exceed current levels by 2042;
• restore precious water bodies to their natural state by cracking down on harmful pollution from sewers and abandoned mines and improving water usage in households;
• deliver our net-zero ambitions and boost nature recovery by increasing tree and woodland cover to 16.5% of the total land area in England by 2050;
• halve the waste per person that is sent to residual treatment by 2042;
• cut exposure to the most harmful air pollutant to human health – PM2.5; and
• restore 70% of designated features in our Marine Protected Areas to a favourable condition by 2042, with the rest in a recovering condition.

Local authorities have a role to play in a number of these targets, and yet the expectations on councils have been unclear. This Private Members’ Bill would go some way towards creating legitimate expectations as to the action needed which itself brings clarity. What is still desperately needed is a clear understanding of what funding might or might not be available to support councils with the part that they need to play.

What’s next?

Many of the Government’s legislative and policy changes still require fleshing out and made real. But they give an indication of the direction of travel and particularly a focus on achieving net zero through clean energy. We await the details around how the Great British Energy Local Power Plan funding will be distributed to achieve clean energy through local projects and how development can be used to serve nature recovery with greater impact. We can anticipate a new National Procurement Policy Statement – to which all contracting authorities must have regard – which may expand upon and clarify what the Government means by mission-led procurement. We will be keeping a careful watch for future developments on all of these points.

For more information, please contact Gayle Monk.

• Share this