Hitchin & Harpenden’s Member of Parliament Bim Afolami MP has welcomed an announcement by Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove that the Government will put local communities in control of onshore wind energy projects in their area. In a letter to MPs, Mr Gove set out four principles for planning reforms around onshore wind projects:
- Permission is predicated on demonstrating local support for the project and satisfactorily addressing the project’s planning impacts as identified by local communities, learning from best practice and using new digital engagement techniques.
- Local authorities can demonstrate their support for certain areas in their boundaries to be suitable for onshore wind to enable us to move away from the overly rigid requirement for onshore wind sites to be designated in a local plan.
- Supports communities to have a say on the necessary infrastructure to connect wind farms to the grid,
- Encourages the upgrading of existing wind farm sites.
The Secretary of State also outlined plans to consult on delivering benefits – including lower energy bills – to communities supportive of local onshore wind infrastructure in their areas.
Mr Afolami, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Renewable & Sustainable Energy and a member of Parliament’s Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Select Committee, has been a vocal advocate of delivering onshore renewables with local support. He has previously written to Ministers to underline the importance of local communities having a say in onshore renewable projects in their area and about ways the impact of onshore renewables can be mitigated on local communities.
Earlier this year, the MP for Hitchin & Harpenden revealed he had been pushing Ministers to grant cheaper or free energy to communities willing to take onshore renewables projects in their area. Speaking at a Solar & Storage Live event in Birmingham in October, he was quoted as having said “The primary reason [for opposition to onshore renewables] is that we’re not giving people any benefit from the solar projects near them. We need to change the system and developers need to work hard to give direct incentives to those living near solar farms.” Mr Afolami went on to argue for lower or free energy for residents near solar projects to incentivise local support.
On the Secretary of State’s announcement, Bim Afolami MP said,
“Delivering a clean, homegrown energy supply helps to insulate local residents from international energy price shocks and protects their bills from the actions of hostile international actors in our supply chains. The Government’s plans for community-supported onshore wind projects will help to unlock further supplies of British renewable energy to contribute to that goal and are a vital step forward.
“It is now vital that we provide incentives for communities who can take onshore wind projects to do so – I welcome that the Secretary of State has listened to interventions from me and Parliamentary colleagues and is now consulting on tying cheaper energy to support for local renewables. This will provide a tangible benefit in the pockets of local communities to make energy schemes more palatable. I will continue to work to encourage the adoption of this policy across more forms of renewable and sustainable energy generation.”
