Earlier this month, the government launched its long–awaited Local Power Plan – its plan to deliver what it hopes will be the “biggest public investment in community energy in this country’s history.” Backed by up to £1 billion of funding from Great British Energy, the plan aims to support over 1,000 local and community projects by 2030 to “ensure every community has the chance to own a local energy project.”
As we highlighted in our recent report, Clean Power = Community Power, this represents a major opportunity for Locality members. Community energy initiatives not only help achieve national net–zero targets but also give communities direct ownership of assets that deliver tangible benefits – from rooftop solar creating savings on energy bills to community–owned wind turbines generating profits that can be reinvested in local priorities. The Local Power Plan could be a rare policy win-win: advancing national climate goals while strengthening local community infrastructure.
The Locality network is ideally placed to help make the plan a success. Members bring deep local knowledge, strong community leadership, and experience managing complex assets – often in the most deprived neighbourhoods. This combination of skills and presence means our network can play a critical role in delivering the government’s clean power ambitions and ensuring the Local Power Plan supports a just energy transition.
However, the details of the policy matter. Developing community energy projects remains challenging, and many have succeeded only against significant odds. Based on extensive research with community organisations, our report set out recommendations for the right policy support package and wider structural reforms needed to enable more projects to succeed. Here, we explore how well the Local Power Plan aligns with some of these recommendations.
Flexible funding?
The Local Power Plan package includes £1 billion of support through a mix of grants, loans, advice, expert help, and more. There is a clear commitment to offer different types of financial support to suit different projects, for example offering grants for early-stage development and loans to help meet the costs of construction. This aligns with our key recommendations: that organisations should have access to low-risk early-stage funding, alongside financial tools that reduce risk and unlock additional capital.
Beyond this, there are other financial routes, including opportunities for direct investment by GB Energy and for local authorities to access funding for joint projects with community organisations.
While these commitments are welcome, the details remain unclear. It’s not yet known how flexible the grants will be in terms of eligible costs (for instance, whether staff time can be included) or how long funding will be available. Similarly, it is unclear what proportion of costs the loans could cover and how affordable they will be – including interest rates and repayment schedules. These factors could determine whether a project succeeds or stalls.
The government has said it will publish the full details of these financial products in the forthcoming “GB Energy Capital Toolkit”, expected in summer 2026. We’ll keep Locality members updated when this is released.
Access to expertise and capacity
The government rightly acknowledges that community organisations will need access to the right expertise, including financial and technical support. They plan to provide this through “a team of experts to help communities plan and build their projects.” Building the capacity and capability of organisations is implied, but could be made more explicit – and government needs to make good on this. GB Energy must not overlook upskilling local organisations, which often go on to lead multiple local energy projects once they have the training and experience.
For more experienced community energy organisations, there is the risk of being sidelined as key partners in delivering local energy projects or training their less experienced peers – a common pitfall of state-led approaches that fail to build on what’s already working well. While the Local Power Plan indicates that GB Energy’s service will “complement existing regional support”, there needs to be a clearer commitment to local partnerships, with support provided to experienced community organisations to continue doing their excellent work.
The government could go further
Looking beyond the support package at the wider structural reforms, the Local Power Plan does make some welcome moves toward addressing some of the issues acting as barriers for community energy projects – though the commitments are not as bold as we hoped.
For example, the government is taking positive steps toward enabling local energy markets. However, it has not yet committed to the legislative changes called for by Locality and national partners that would require existing suppliers to service these local markets. Similarly, the government recognises the need to simplify the planning system and aims to redevelop the national planning policy framework with clearer rules to speed up processes, but it’s not clear that this will include a reduction in the evidential requirements for community energy schemes.
What members can do next
Key details of the Local Power Plan remain unclear, and the government could go further in addressing some of the structural barriers impeding the progress of community energy. Nevertheless, it marks a significant step forward for community energy in England and represents a real opportunity for communities to take the lead in delivering clean power.
For Locality members, now is the time to explore what the Local Power Plan could mean for your community. The government is encouraging expressions of interest (EOIs) for projects. They advise this is not a formal commitment or funding application – but it does signal interest and start the conversation. This is your chance to shape ideas, explore potential projects, and be ready to move quickly when the full details of funding and support are published later this year.
To help you get started, we recommend reading our report, Clean Power = Community Power. It provides practical considerations and inspiration to think through the key issues and develop ideas for your local project. By combining optimism with careful planning and informed action, Locality members can ensure that community energy delivers not just clean power, but lasting benefits for local people and places.