Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the i) effectiveness and ii) adequacy of the consistency of voluntary community benefits guidance for onshore wind developments.

England and Scotland have established voluntary community benefits guidance for onshore wind, setting out best practice approaches with expectations that developers provide £5,000 per megawatt of capacity yearly over the project’s lifetime.

The quality and value of community benefits have increased over time in Scotland, with large scale projects commonly offering this figure or more. There is limited evidence in England given the de facto ban, however this will be monitored as deployment increases.

Government has sought views on the potential introduction of mandatory community benefits for low carbon energy infrastructure through our working paper, published May 2025.