At a recent NE Bedfordshire CLP meeting, we submitted the following policy motion to Labour's National Policy forum…

Labour has led the way on efforts to deal with climate change, through the introduction of the Climate Change Act in 2008 and with their 2017manifesto commitment to ensure 60% of energy is produced from zero carbon or renewable resources.

To achieve the CO2 targets governments will need to be ambitious in their policies. According to the ‘Housing for the Many’ green paper, published earlier this year, a Labour government will build 100,000 affordable houses each year.

NE BEDS CLP believes that it should be mandatory for solar panels to be installed on all new housing and public buildings, except in cases where shading or alignment makes electricity generation negligible. This will provide the following benefits:

• installation at the time of the build is cheaper than retro-fitting.

• solar panels will reduce the energy bills of the residents.

• solar panels will reduce the carbon footprint of the housing saving between 1.3 and 1.6 tons of CO2 per year.

• cost savings from solar panels particularly benefit those on a low income, who spend a higher proportion of their income on energy bills.

Consideration should also be given to the installation of solar panels on existing housing stock and public buildings and suitable incentives provided to encourage this.

This policy, in conjunction with other renewable energy initiatives such as wind and tidal power, will assist the UK to achieve the 2030 targets and ensure that the UK plays its part in the global requirement to cut CO2 emissions to reduce the worst effects of climate change.