The Local Authority Community Energy Springboard (LACES) project is strengthening collaborations between local authorities and community energy organisations across the Greater South East region.
Project delivery partners
LACES is funded by the Greater South East Net Zero Hub, which also supports project coordination. It explores how local authorities are engaging with community energy and identifies ways to encourage partnership working and project delivery. Other key partner organisations include Community Energy Pathways, Centre for Sustainable Energy, and Community Energy England.
Mapping local authority engagement
In the first phase of the project, the team assessed the “maturity” of upper-tier and unitary authorities, essentially looking at how developed their collaboration with community energy currently is.
Building on the six building blocks developed through the Hub’s previous LACE project with CAG Consultants and Centre for Sustainable Energy, a refined assessment methodology was created to ensure objective and consistent comparisons across counties. This has enabled the creation of a clear, mappable overview of where local authorities stand and where support is most needed.
Engagement has included direct conversations with councils across different regions, as well as other stakeholders, including the Greater London Authority and London Councils. The project has also connected with organisations delivering related work in London and beyond.
Developing the roadmap and toolkits
The next phase focuses on producing a roadmap and toolkits for local authorities and community energy organisations.
Rather than duplicating existing guidance (including resources previously funded by Innovate UK), the project has undertaken a gap analysis. This confirmed that what local authority officers often need is not high-level strategy, but practical support that tackles real-world blockers (particularly for Climate Change, Sustainability and Energy Officers working within constrained local authority environments).
The roadmap will be shaped through:
- Regional conferences (planned in Essex and potentially Berkshire)
- Webinars to gather feedback from more mature local authorities and community energy organisations
- Collaboration with events organised by partner organisations
- Engagement with active councils, such as those in Cambridgeshire, exploring community energy initiatives linked to Energy4All Schools