In the 3rd Reading stage of the Energy Bill, Andrew Bowie MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Nuclear and Networks, confirmed that regulations for industrial lithium-ion batteries will be updated to more properly take into account potential fire hazards. These facilities will now require an industrial installations permit, a kind of Environmental Permit and Planning Guidance has also already been strengthened, both in response to a campaign run by local Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.
Maria Miller’s year-long campaign, which culminated in an amendment tabled to the Energy Bill that was supported by 29 MPs from all the main political parties. Maria has been working with Basingstoke Councillor Kate Tuck since a planning application for a lithium ion battery storage facility was given the green light by BDBC located next to a local hospital, a river, and accessed on a narrow residential road.
Maria said,
‘’The Government has listened to the need for a change in the rules governing the location of lithium ion battery storage facilities and it has acted. I first became aware of the potential fire risks of this type of site when planning permission was granted for a battery plant at Basing Fen, metres away from the river Loddon and opposite the Hampshire Clinic.
‘’From conversations with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Service, it was clear that Basing Fen is a completely inappropriate place for this kind of facility. However, the planning department at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council explained they felt they had no grounds to prevent this kind of application from proceeding, despite the concerns voices by Hampshire Fire and Rescue.
‘’As well as raising the issue in the House of Commons, I have held a series of meetings over the past year with Ministers from four different government departments, bringing them together with fire experts to raise awareness in Government of the real concern surrounding the risk posed by lithium ion battery storage facilities like the one planned for Basing Fen. In response to my campaign, the Government has taken the welcome step to require all storage facilities to have an industrial installations permit; a form of Environmental Permit which applies to those industrial activities that could cause significant environmental harm.
‘’Critically, the government has made it clear that these permits will be applied to both sites that are already operational and to sites like Basing Fen where planning permission has been granted but building works have not been completed.
‘’I have maintained throughout this campaign that lithium-ion batteries have an important role in flattening out peaks in renewable electricity supply as we make our transition to net-zero, however, we must make sure that they are safe and placed in appropriate places. The fire service, insurers and industry experts are clear that the new measures I have been campaigning for and that have been announced by Government this week will make it easier for battery plants to be developed and properly funded because the regulations will encourage developers and operators the find more suitable locations, which are at less risk of adversely impacting the local community and the local environment.
‘’It has been a lengthy campaign, but I am glad that the government has listened to the facts and been prepared to change its position.. I would like to thank the Ministers for working so constructively on this, the dozens of other MPs who supported my amendment and above all the assiduous Councillor Kate Tuck who first spotted the Basing Fen application and appreciated that change was needed in the rules governing planning applications like this where a lithium ion battery ‘fire’ could prove devastating to both the local community and the local environment.’’
