Council’s Energy Costs and Greenhouse Emissions
According to a survey published in The Times last week following Freedom of Information Requests, Hastings Borough Council (HBC) paid 66.2 pence per kilowatt-hour for electricity in the year to March 2024 – the highest price paid by any local authority in England and Wales, and more than three and a half times the lowest (Rushcliffe BC paid 18p per kWh).
A spokesperson for the council explained last week: “Unfortunately, our electricity contract ended at the peak of the energy crisis, which meant we had to pay high prices for our electricity for the year to March 2024. We only agreed a one-year contract, which meant we were able to re-tender last year and agree significantly lower prices for our contract until 2026. With the new contract we will be paying around the same price we were paying in 2021.”
In the meantime, HBC leader Cllr Julia Hilton has signed a pledge for Hastings to join the UK100 network of councils committing the council to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work with residents and businesses to bring down their emissions as soon as possible.
Cllr Hilton said: “Joining this network of councils across the country is part of our work to make sure that climate change is part of every decision made by the council. By joining together with other councils, we will have more lobbying power to ask for funding and support from the new government. We are committed to doing all we can to reduce our emissions and using our convening power to work with other key stakeholders, residents and businesses to create a joint plan to achieve our very ambitious and challenging goal of together becoming a town with net zero carbon emissions by 2030.”
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