‘More grassroots teams, more community’: How MPs responded to E.ON taking the case for affordable new energy to Westminster

“A club has to run.” 

Against the unmistakable backdrop of the Houses of Parliament, those five words were how Rt Hon Lord Markham CBE, Shadow Science and Technology Minister, distilled the challenge facing grassroots football – and summed up the reason E.ON Next and England Football recently brought the game to the heart of Westminster. 

The occasion was the launch of the latest phase of England Football’s Greener Game programme, supported by E.ON Next – an initiative helping grassroots football clubs across England cut their energy costs through practical measures including solar panels, battery storage, LED lighting, insulation and smarter, more flexible ways of using energy. 

This was no conventional launch. 

A solar-powered floating football pitch on the River Thames – pictured below moored at Lambeth Pier directly opposite Parliament – became the stage for a unique tournament in June, bringing MPs, Lords and parliamentary staffers together with grassroots players and former Lionesses captain Millie Bright. 

There was plenty of theatre in putting a football pitch on the Thames.  

But beneath it lay a serious proposition – what if the transition to cleaner energy could help grassroots clubs spend less on keeping the lights on, and more on keeping people playing? 

For Lord Markham – seen taking part in the Thames event in our video below, which can also be viewed on YouTube – the connection was straightforward. 

He said: “A club has to run – it’s got obviously a clubhouse, it’s got floodlights, because we all know how dark it gets in the winters here. 

“The easier we can make it on clubs, then that means the more teams they can build and the more involved they can get in the local community. Hats off to E.ON and all the people who are doing this, so we can get more grassroots football.” 

In short – more grassroots teams, more community.

It is a simple idea, but one with implications far beyond energy. 

From a floating pitch to hundreds of real clubs 

Launched in 2024, the Greener Game gives eligible England Football Accredited clubs access to expert guidance, free energy audits and tailored energy upgrades. 

More than 400 clubs are already signed up, with more than £2million invested in the programme so far.

Some participating clubs have reported reductions of up to 25% in their energy bills. 

For clubs operating on tight budgets, those percentages can translate into something much more tangible: kit, equipment, better facilities, longer opening hours and more opportunities to play. 

That is key because the pressures affecting households and businesses have not stopped at the clubhouse door. 

Anna Quick, National Development Manager, Clubs and Facilities at The FA, said at our Thames event: “We have a thriving network of wonderful grassroots clubs across the country, that are predominantly run by volunteers and they do a brilliant, brilliant job. 

“As everybody’s feeling the increased cost of living and increased utility costs at the moment, football clubs are not exempt from that, and they’re feeling the same, so we’re trying really hard to support them to help reduce their energy bills so that they can reinvest in their football clubs and into their local communities.” 

That reinvestment is the point. 

Reducing energy consumption is one measure of success. What happens to the money saved is another.

When solar energy becomes football kit 

At Rugby Borough Football Club, more than 1,600 players use its three eight-a-side pitches.  

Running a facility of that scale means energy has long competed for money with the things players actually see: equipment, maintenance and improvements to the club. 

“Every year, year-in, year-out, energy has had a massive impact,” said Stuart Bishop, Vice-Chair and General Secretary of Rugby Borough Football Club, as he attended the Thames launch. 

With prices rising, he added, finding the money “to buy kit and equipment – even maintaining the site itself” had become increasingly difficult. 

But installing solar has started to change the equation. 

Stuart also said: “Reinvestment in kit, equipment, even as little things as grass seeds – having the solar panels on the roof and lowering our energy – it’s really allowed us then to put more money into our players and into our club.” 

The same story is playing out elsewhere. 

Shefford Sports Club, home to Shefford Town FC, has reported monthly energy savings of £700 to £800.

The savings have helped the club – pictured below – upgrade its kitchen facilities, extend its opening hours and welcome more visitors. 

This is where talk about the energy transition becomes refreshingly uncomplicated. 

Lower the cost of running the building and there is more money for the people using it. 

A solar panel can become new kit, a battery can help protect money for facilities and a smarter tariff can leave more in the budget for the pitch. 

Energy becomes not simply a cost to manage, but something a club can take greater control over. 

Why grassroots is vital 

For former England Lioness Millie Bright, there is another reason those savings matter. 

Before the stadiums, the international caps and elite football comes the grassroots game – and the experiences it gives children long before anyone knows how far their football journey might take them. 

“I think for me, it’s the base for every child to get into sport,” Millie said at the Thames launch. 

Looking back on her own grassroots experience, she added it was about “confidence and me as a person – and learning different skill sets, how to work as a team, how to overcome barriers, how to step into something that was a little bit uncomfortable.” 

Mille added: “Without that foundation I definitely wouldn’t be stood where I am today.” 

That is the bigger return on keeping grassroots clubs financially healthy. 

These are football facilities, but they are also pieces of community infrastructure: places run predominantly by volunteers where children develop confidence, friendships are made and communities gather. 

Keeping their costs under control can help protect all of that. 

Making new energy work – for everyone 

For E.ON, the Greener Game programme is also a practical demonstration of a much larger ambition: to make new energy work – for us all. 

The premise is Britain no longer needs to think about cleaner energy and affordable energy as competing ambitions. 

Technologies already available – from solar and batteries to smarter tariffs and flexibility – can help customers take greater control of how they use energy and what they spend on it. 

Across E.ON UK and its brands – E.ON Next, E.ON Energy Infrastructure Solutions and npower Business Solutions – we serve 5.6 million households and 370,000 businesses.  

More than 8,000 employees and apprentices are working across the business as it seeks to turn the transition to new energy into something that delivers not just lower-carbon power, but lower costs, greater resilience, new skills and stronger communities. 

That means helping households and SMEs use energy more intelligently and lower their bills.

It means helping UK businesses make clean energy a competitive advantage.

It means working with cities and local authorities on infrastructure that can lower carbon and costs while delivering local benefits. 

And it means taking those same ideas into communities – including grassroots football clubs. 

The Greener Game represents the energy transition in action. 

Scott Somerville, Head of External Affairs at E.ON UK – pictured above right in the grounds of Staveley Miners Welfare FC, the first of England’s grassroots clubs to take part in the Greener Game – said at our Thames pitch: “Where we see the biggest difference is when we get into those grassroots clubs, where we install the solar, where we install the batteries, when we get them on the Time-of-Use tariff – that’s when real change happens. 

“Making new energy work is about that change that can effect on an individual level, on a community-wide level – today, tomorrow and over those years to come. 

“It’s about practical help for people, it’s about pounds in their pockets and it’s about showing energy transition as a real force for good.” 

A serious point beneath the spectacle 

Solar, batteries, flexibility and smarter energy use are solutions available now which can cut costs while helping to build a cleaner, more resilient energy system for the future. 

That was the message carried by a floating pitch to the doorstep of Parliament. 

But its impact will ultimately be judged somewhere much less conspicuous: in clubhouses and on football pitches across England. 

Because, as Lord Markham put it, make it easier for clubs to run and “that means the more teams they can build and the more involved they can get in the local community”. 

And that is exactly what making new energy work should ultimately look like – lower costs translated into greater opportunity, with the benefits flowing back to the people and communities which need them most.

To find out more about the Greener Game, click here.