“We understand the Labour Party’s commitment to clean energy; the UK should be looking at opportunities to decarbonise; gas is cleaner than both coal and oil and the existing gas grid is capable of withstanding injections of green gases like bio methane. But they do need to understand that currently renewables alone cannot meet the UK’s energy needs and come up with a plan to balance affordability, sustainability and security of supply.

Regarding the plans to ‘democratise energy’ we want to see more detail. Community based energy companies could have a role to play in tackling issues like fuel poverty but providing cheaper heat and power is only part of the solution. We need to look at the energy efficiency of the buildings in which people live. Also shale is a great example of a fuel that could be exploited to the benefit of the local community so I will be interested to see the details behind the headlines.”