Hounslow Council Makes Energy Plea to Ed Miliband

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Says west London grid capacity major obstacle to achieving Net Zero

Left: Ed Miliband. Right: An electricity sub-station. Picture: Richard Webb

August 16, 2024

Hounslow Council's Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport has written to Ed Miliband asking for support in the borough’s quest to achieve Net Zero.

In the letter, as well as inviting the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, to Hounslow’s Net Zero Summit, Katherine Dunne tells him that capacity constraint issues in the electricity grid in west London are preventing the building of low carbon housing developments and reducing the ability to retrofit existing housing stock with renewable community energy generation and storage solutions. She also raises concern about the proliferation of data centres in west London and the impact they are having on demand for electricity.

Cllr Dunne tells the former Labour leader that, “We look forward to working closely with you and your team to achieving energy security and net zero. We recognise this mission as the cornerstone to delivering our shared ambitions and a pillar to the success of the Government manifesto.”

She claims that Hounslow Council’s leadership in climate action and net zero sets a ‘high bar’ for others to follow and that the borough’s “bold steps inspire hope and demonstrate that local action can drive global impact”.

Its target is to become Net Zero by 2030 for its operations and estate which includes its vehicle fleet and 13,000 social housing properties whilst influencing wider borough emissions reduction.

However, Cllr Dunne says that funding for decarbonising initiatives needs to be ‘fair and flexible’ and there must be a move ‘away from previous government’s regressive approach which forced councils to compete against each other for limited funding pots with unrealistic delivery timescales and unnecessarily restrictive criteria’.

At the same time Hounslow admits central government cannot provide all the funding for the investment needed and it has been working with the private sector to develop a blended finance model.

However, Cllr Dunne says that ‘a key limiting factor’ to Net Zero transition is the current constraints on grid capacity and energy supply which is having a severe impact on the council’s ability to bring forward low carbon housing development. Hounslow has worked with the GLA and other boroughs to develop a West London Local Area Energy Plan but this is insufficient to reinforce the grid before 2037 to enable growth and decarbonisation ambitions to be achievable. In addition, she says more attention needs to be given to ensuring energy companies stick to agreed medium and long-term infrastructure planning. Concerns about the local grid capacity first started to be voiced in 2022 when it was suggested that larger developments might fail to get planning permission because supply to them couldn't be guaranteed.

The issue of data centres is also raised. These massive facilities use a huge amount of electricity and Hounslow would like to see more co-ordination in planning for this demand.

Increased funding for energy infrastructure is also requested to support housing projects that require new energy infrastructure, particularly those funded by housing grants.

Describing it as a critical strategic risk, she makes a number of requests of the minister including that the allocation process for energy grid capacity is informed by comprehensive data on development consents, project starts, and completions. She asks for regulatory procedures to be simplified to address queue management and enable faster approval and implementation of utility connections and permits.

The minister is invited to the summit in Hounslow to see the ‘transformative work’ being done at an event which will showcase case studies and programmes designed to accelerate the borough’s transition to a net zero future.

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