New Commons Motion Defending the Merton Rule

Labour MP Martin Caton has tabled a new Commons Early Day Motion in defence of the Merton rule.  The Motion reminds Ministers of their consistent support for the Merton Rule and urges them to ensure that the Rule is not weakened in the forthcoming Climate Change PPS.  The full text of the motion is below.  Please write to your local MP and ask them to sign EDM 2048.  If you don't know the name of your local MP, please use the following link http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons/l/

EDM 2048MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW DEVELOPMENTS   08.10.2007

Caton, Martin    15 signatures

Bottomley, Peter; Cryer, Ann; Drew, David; Durkan, Mark; George, Andrew; Gerrard, Neil; Jones, Lynne; Keetch, Paul; Leech, John; McCarthy, Kerry; Russell, Bob; Waltho, Lynda; Weir, Mike; Whitehead, Alan

That this House supports the Merton Rule, initiated by Merton Council, requiring all new developments to include measures to generate at least 10 per cent. of their energy through on-site renewable energy technologies where viable; notes that some 140 councils are following this example; further supports existing government Planning Policy Statement 22 (PPS 22) which urges that local planning authorities should consider the opportunity for incorporating renewable energy projects in all new developments; further supports the views expressed by the Minister for Housing and Planning in the House on 8th June last year that `it is essential that all authorities should follow this example' and that `the Government expects all authorities to include policies in their development plans that require a percentage of energy in new developments to come from on-site energy'; further supports the views of the same Minister in a letter to the Sustainable Energy Partnership dated 2nd October that `the Rule has acted as a real incentive to provide local renewable energy and cut carbon emissions'; is therefore very concerned that the latest draft of the Climate Change PPS to be published shortly undermines the Rule by requiring councils to avoid authority-wide blanket requirements for on-site renewable energy, thus preventing them from applying it to all new developments; and therefore calls on the Minister to ensure that the proposed weakening of PPS 22 does not appear in the final published Climate Change PPS.