The Institution of Lighting Professionals met with UK Home Secretary to discuss lighting issues.
Scott Pengelly and Alistair Scott, who volunteer as the Institution’s Vice Presidents for Products and Government & Policy respectively, met Home Secretary Priti Patel at her Witham constituency recently to discuss key issues affecting the lighting industry. This meeting came about as a result of the ILP pre-election campaign to highlight the lighting priorities to all prospective MPs.
They introduced the ILP as one of the licenced professional engineering institutions of the Engineering Council, explained that the purpose of the ILP is to promote excellence in lighting and that the ILP provided excellent education and technical guidance for members and the wider public.
The main issues that were discussed included:
Skills shortage: the ILP welcomes the £3bn national skills fund but current experience is that the Modern Apprenticeships and Apprenticeship levy are not working for our industry and for SME’s.
Decaying street lighting infrastructure: whilst money is provided for LED replacement programmes where there is a clear cost benefit and pay back, there is a major problem looming with the columns not being replaced within their normal design life. Ultimately, if nothing is done then a serious incident could occur.
Climate change: there is a major benefit of investment in LED lighting with respect to reducing energy consumption and the ILP suggested that more local authorities should be encouraged with funding to invest to save. The Vice Presidents also mentioned the benefit of the government backed funding schemes.
The Home Secretary undertook to bring these issues to the attention of her relevant government colleagues and the ILP will continue to work with government at all levels to promote the benefits of good lighting.