22:02 Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)

The proposals were wide ranging and included measures to protect local post offices, shops and trade, and pubs; measures to increase the production and sale of local food; measures to promote local renewable energy, microgeneration and energy efficiency; measures to protect local public services; and measures to increase democratic participation.

The people of Brighton and Hove successfully urged the council to opt into the Act, and then many got involved in coming up with the proposals that would help the area become a more sustainable place. Of those proposals, eight were shortlisted by the LGA. Examples include allowing food grown in allotments to be sold locally, introducing feed-in tariffs for local renewable energy and empowering councils to have more flexible business rates to encourage local trade and jobs.

I am pleased that as a result of that process, the Government will make it easier to introduce renewable energy schemes by bringing in permitted development rights for small-scale renewable and microgenerational energy. They have also agreed to legislate to establish a community right of purchase, which will allow communities to bid to take over local assets. A moratorium on the sale of listed assets will give community groups time to prepare a bid. The planning rules are due to be amended to exclude gardens from the classification of “previously developed land”, and the Government have backed community calls for a ban on the sale of alcohol below cost price, preventing supermarkets from selling alcohol below a certain price floor.

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