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6 | 3rd - 9th OctOber 2014 | UtILItY WeeK People & Opinion Devolution: coming to a street near you The Scottish referendum may be over, but for utilities the uncertainty lives on. Chief executive's view Mike Foster, the Energy & Utilities Alliance I n some ways it already seems an age since the announce- ment of Scotland's decision to remain a part of the United Kingdom. In reality, the ramifications are still rippling across the busi- ness community – for many in the form of a sigh of relief and the ability to push forward with actions that require stability. But a question remains: what will devolution bring? Instability is the curse of industry, especially ours with its long-term investment strate- gies and paybacks. The No vote preserves the status quo of an integrated UK energy market, and enables time and resources to be devoted to carbon reduc- tion and securing supply rather than relocating head offices and personnel. However, with politicians now committed to re-examining how the UK is governed, the No vote cannot be interpreted as a vote for no change. This matters to industry. Early indications are for more devolved powers for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – all relevant to Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA), as our members operate in these countries. What happens in England is also up for discussion. Industry needs to be heard in the debate about what these powers might include and how they will be pared off. We must make it our business to be a part of devolution discussions, and to ensure these discussions do not take place only in Westminster, but embrace a wider audience. There is growing consensus already that devolution should include more localisation of services. How these are to be set up and what they are is not yet known, but it comes in parallel with movements in the energy world for more devolution – be it in power generation or delivery of energy efficiency. Local net- works and decentralised genera- tion will both have a greater role to play in the future. Last year the EUA partnered with the think-tank IPPR to explore ways in which energy efficiency programmes like the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation could be expanded. We examined how delivery could be undertaken in an era of distrust between consumers and the energy suppliers. Street-by-street rollout, led by community champions or local authorities, we concluded was an attractive way to engage consumers. Certainly lessons from suc- cessful Cert and Cesp schemes indicated that community buy-in brought higher levels of house- hold uptake of energy efficiency measures than predecessor schemes that relied on individu- als seeking support. This might also be a better way to target resources to tackle fuel poverty – likely to be localised – compared with the focus on hard-to-treat homes. So if you thought the refer- endum was all about Scotland, think again, the consequences of the vote could well be felt down your street. disruptive utilities news from around the globe Energy efficiency goes large in the Big Apple It's not just caroline Flint that's placing big bets on energy effi- ciency as a route to a low-carbon economy and security of supply. As the Labour energy secretary last week unveiled the party's plan to insulate five million homes over ten years, New York city revealed a $1 billion (£600 million) campaign to make public buildings more energy efficient. the scheme is part of a larger ambition to reduce the city's emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, compared with 2005. the plan was revealed at the begin- ning of the United Nations climate change Summit. BrAvE nEw world Call to action on sanitation the chief executives of the Ikea foundation and Water.org have called on leaders in the public and private sector to support the WaterCredit model for financing improvements to water sanita- tion in the developing world. In a blog for theguardian.com's website, the chief executives, Per heggenes and Gary White, said: "We need the help of oth- ers from the public and private sectors who can leverage their resources, networks and voice to improve financial inclusion at the bottom of the pile for water and sanitation needs. "We need more programmes like Water credit that drive down the philanthropic cost per person reached with safe water and increase the overall number of people served. " 53% Proportion of business lead- ers in the UK who do not think climate change is important to their organisations, according to a YouGov survey conducted for Npower.