Micropower Council Statement on the Merton Rule
Submitted by admin on August 28, 2007 - 13:20.
News
The Micropower Council, together with the Sustainable Energy Partnership and leading green groups has urged Government to maintain its support for the Merton Rule. The Merton Rule is the borough-wide local planning policy which requires developers to use onsite renewables on major new developments where viable, and has proved to be a major cause of growth in the uptake of microgeneration in the last few years. Their call comes in direct response to reports in the national press that the government is considering reversing this crucial policy for the microgeneration industry.
The policy, first developed by the then Labour boroughs of Merton and Croydon was enthusiastically endorsed by housing Minister Yvette Cooper MP in a Commons Ministerial Statement on 8 June 2006 and is enshrined in current Government planning guidance.
Last year Yvette Cooper's department wrote to every local planning authority in the country with instructions to include a Merton rule in their draft local plans. A DCLG press release promised that it would include this request "in the new planning policy guidance on climate change." To date, the GLA, three other English regions, and 20 Local Planning Authorities have fully adopted the policy with another 150 about to do so.
The Merton Rule is a key plank of the Government's wider renewable and sustainable energy policy and one of its few microgeneration policy successes in recent years.
Micropower Council Chief Executive Dave Sowden said: "The Merton Rule has been a modest yet proven and highly successful policy in growing the market for microgeneration technologies to date. It would be an ironic U-turn in government policy if trailblaizing Local Authorities had their ability to seek high environmental standards removed by what purports to be a planning policy statement specifically aimed at tackling climate change. Without the Merton rule in place, the national zero carbon homes timetable is unlikely to deliver any microgeneration until 2013 at the very earliest and could have serious consequences for the industry"
The policy, first developed by the then Labour boroughs of Merton and Croydon was enthusiastically endorsed by housing Minister Yvette Cooper MP in a Commons Ministerial Statement on 8 June 2006 and is enshrined in current Government planning guidance.
Last year Yvette Cooper's department wrote to every local planning authority in the country with instructions to include a Merton rule in their draft local plans. A DCLG press release promised that it would include this request "in the new planning policy guidance on climate change." To date, the GLA, three other English regions, and 20 Local Planning Authorities have fully adopted the policy with another 150 about to do so.
The Merton Rule is a key plank of the Government's wider renewable and sustainable energy policy and one of its few microgeneration policy successes in recent years.
Micropower Council Chief Executive Dave Sowden said: "The Merton Rule has been a modest yet proven and highly successful policy in growing the market for microgeneration technologies to date. It would be an ironic U-turn in government policy if trailblaizing Local Authorities had their ability to seek high environmental standards removed by what purports to be a planning policy statement specifically aimed at tackling climate change. Without the Merton rule in place, the national zero carbon homes timetable is unlikely to deliver any microgeneration until 2013 at the very earliest and could have serious consequences for the industry"
