Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) has published an Energy Infrastructure Strategy to help shape investment in a greener future.
The strategy aims to ensure the city and county are at the forefront of improvements and efficiencies over the coming years – that will require vast investment and potentially create thousands of jobs.
It sets out the LLEP’s local aspirations in areas such as:
– Installing public charging points for electric cars
– Pursuing a low-carbon public transport network
– Building thousands of new energy-efficient homes
– Better insulating existing homes
Transport accounts for 35 per cent of all UK energy use and 25 per cent of carbon emissions, while improving housing could save £100 million a year in energy bills.
Deputy Leicester City Mayor Coun Adam Clarke said: “I wholeheartedly welcome this new environmental strategy for our city.
“Low-energy industries have huge potential to improve not only our air quality and quality of life, but also our local economy.
“We’re supporting the projects proposed by the LLEP, as more can be done at a local level to cut carbon emissions.
“Improvements to our energy infrastructure will have lasting benefits – not only in cutting our carbon emissions but to the quality of life of Leicester residents.
“As we upgrade our energy infrastructure, there will undoubtedly be many new jobs and opportunities for business in a relatively new sector.
“We want Leicester to become a hub for the low-carbon industry, and to encourage our young workforce to aspire to the highly-skilled roles this will bring.”
Leicestershire County Council leader Coun Nick Rushton said: “I welcome this new strategy for Leicester and Leicestershire, which provides a clear direction for the future.
“Improving our energy infrastructure will undoubtedly bring new opportunities for businesses who are working on new technologies to reduce carbon emissions, benefiting the environment and improving quality of life for local residents.
“With this new energy strategy in place, we hope that more low-carbon businesses will see Leicestershire as the place to invest and innovate.”
The LLEP said improving the energy infrastructure – supported by innovative businesses within the city and county’s two Enterprise Zones – could, for instance, bolster the region’s booming logistics sector and provide low-energy homes of the future.
The projects proposed within the strategy document cover the whole of the LLEP economic region, and its sectors, including home building, transport, power generation and energy networks.
It covers local and national government policy and will feed into the LLEP’s local industrial strategy.
The LLEP said the next stage will be to bring partners together – including central government – to look at funding options to deliver the necessary changes while benefiting local businesses.
