Milton drops support for Microgeneration Bill

5.42.27pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 8th Nov 2005

Conservative MP Anne Milton has backed down from a pledge to the supporters of the Microgeneration Bill in the House of Commons, which is set to be debated on Friday. She has now said she will not be in the House for the debate.

Former Guildford MP Sue Doughty said "I am deeply disappointed with Anne Milton's decision not to support the bill. It is essential if we are to meet our targets and tackle climate change, which is the greatest threat to our planet today. This bill would have had a big effect in the South-East, which faces a massive building programme and could have made all the difference to our attempts to tackle climate change."

The bill, which has cross-party support, would bring in a number of measures to tackle climate change. It would require the Prime Minister to report annually to Parliament on greenhouse gas emissions, require the Chancellor of the Exchequer to implement a fiscal strategy to promote energy efficient microenergy generation, require targets to be set for microgeneration, introduce a number of policies to help achieve those targets including the granting of permitted development status and the use of building regulations to ensure that new building will include a minimum standard for energy generation, introduce a renewable heat obligation requiring utility companies to supply heat from renewable sources, and would also facilitate the development of small community based sustainable energy scheme.