Government must support microgeneration - Huhne

The Liberal Democrats today backed calls by several green groups for the Government not to relax the so-called ‘Merton Rule’.
 
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:
 
“The Merton Rule is a small but vital step towards allowing councils to set the pace with higher eco-standards than are applied nationally.
 
“Weakening it will not just be a blow to carbon cuts, but also to local initiative and in favour of centralisation.
 
“Ministers should support local communities, and not give in to the short-sighted lobbying of industry groups. Ignoring climate change is like putting your head Ostrich-like into the sand.
 
“Homes we build today have to last for generations, and it is madness not to build to the key future standards needed to stem climate chaos.  The Government should build new homes to high eco-standards just as the post-war homes were usually built to the high Parker-Morris standards of the time.”
 
ENDS
 
Notes to Editors
 
1. Friends of the Earth and the Green Alliance have written to Yvette Cooper stating that the U-turn ‘will have a profoundly negative impact’ on planners ability to deal with climate change, calling the move damaging and with ‘no justification’.
 
2. The Merton Rule allows planning authorities to require developers to use onsite renewable electricity on major new developments where viable.
 
3. On the 8th June 2006 Yvette Cooper, the Minister for Housing and Planning, announced that the ‘Government expect all planning authorities to include policies in their development plans that require a percentage of the energy in new developments to come from on-site renewables.’
 
4. In response to a written question from Chris Huhne Yvette Cooper reiterated on 6th December 2006 'the importance placed by Government on the use of on-site renewable energy' noting that the Merton rule had let to 'an impressive surge in on-site renewable energy policies'. http://tinyurl.com/2nufog

5. To date, the Greater London Authority, three other English regions, and 20 Local Planning Authorities have fully adopted the policy with another 150 about to do so.