Trees for Cities is pleased to be working with Croydon Council to plant some new trees on Ashburton Playing Fields. We are planting some large trees across the playing fields to provide additional shade and enhance biodiversity.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the tree planting design. Comments, concerns and suggestions were taken into consideration to create the updated design and species list which can be viewed on our website.

Following community consultation, we are planning to plant the trees in March 2024. There will be lots of opportunities to volunteer and get involved with a community planting day planned for 16th March 2024.

If you would like to be kept informed of this project, or would like to learn how to get involved, please click here for contact details.

For more information and to fill in the feedback form, visit the Trees for Cities website.

The  feedback form will close on Sunday 5th November to allow the Trees for Cities team time to review all the feedback received and make amendments to the design.

Last month’s Government announcement of a new fund to help community energy grow was soon followed by two further welcome commitments

Over the last year the Government have been progressing a big piece of energy legislation through Parliament, called the Energy Bill. Our collective efforts saw MPs from all parties calling for community energy-enabling measures to be added into the Bill, which has now nearly completed its passage through Parliament. In response, on 11th August the Government announced a £10 million Community Energy Fund.

As the first supportive action from Government for community energy in many years, this was a very welcome new direction.

Then, when Parliament debated the Energy Bill again on 5th September, MPs from all parties again called for more from the Government for community energy. Their rationale was that, whilst the new fund will no doubt help, it will not remove the barriers that prevent community energy schemes selling their power directly to local people.

And when the Energy Minister Andrew Bowie spoke, he made two further promises:

1. To consult on removing the barriers that community energy projects face when trying to sell their power locally, and
2. To report annually to Parliament on the progress towards removing those barriers.

You can watch our highlights video of the debate by clicking here.

This is another success in our efforts to see more locally-owned and run renewable energy generation. A consultation is a fundamental step towards enablement reform, whilst annual reporting will help Parliament and the public hold the Government to account.

We will do all we can to ensure that the consultation, expected in the autumn, leads to reforms that will help new community energy projects to spring up everywhere.

Then, last week, the House of Lords voted in favour of including a new amendment to the Energy Bill that commits the Government to a strict timeframe for the consultation.

This creates a further opportunity for MPs to urge the Minister for more when the Energy Bill returns to the House of Commons in mid-October. I will write again closer to the time with more details.

All this activity in both Houses of Parliament shows what our collective efforts have done. Before our campaigning started a few years ago, community energy was not a topic that MPs, Lords or Baronesses repeatedly pushed at Parliamentary debates. Now they do – and Ministers are responding ever more positively. Action is the measure of success, not words. But the right words in Parliament are a vital ingredient. Our collective advocacy has done this.

Find out more by visiting the Power for People website.

In response to the huge public and Parliamentary support for our campaign for more community renewable energy, the Government have just announced a new £10 million Community Energy Fund for England.

This is a very big success indeed. It is the first substantial action from Government to help community energy in over six years. The fund is intended to see many more community-run renewable generation schemes get off the ground.

Our collective efforts have turned things around and this is definitely a cause for celebration. My thanks to you for helping to make this wonderful success happen.

To recap, our campaign has brought the majority of the House of Commons – 325 MPs, including 128 Conservatives – on board in support of the Local Electricity Bill, which would enable community energy schemes to sell their power to local people.

We then used this support to see the Government’s Energy Bill amended in the spring, introducing two new clauses that were worded the same as the Local Electricity Bill. But the Government opposed these clauses and so intended to remove them. However, this risked them losing a House of Commons vote because of the remarkable amount of MP and public support we had gathered.

This led to Andrew Bowie promising Parliament in June that the Government would bring forward an alternative proposal to enable growth in community energy. He has kept his word.

Whilst we must call on our elected representatives and the Government to do much more to help stop the climate crisis and save the natural world, it is equally important to thank them fully and sincerely when they do take significant action that will help.

We are making plans on how to progress from here. Whilst the fund is very welcome, there is much that could still be done to see more community renewable energy across the UK.