Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will launch a public consultation on reviewing footnote 54 relating to onshore wind energy development applications in the National Planning Policy Framework in the context of rising energy prices.

The Government is clear in national planning policy that the planning system should support the transition to a low-carbon future, including supporting renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure. Local planning authorities should approve applications for renewable and low carbon energy generation if the impacts are or can be made acceptable. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) expects any proposed wind energy development to be located in an area identified as suitable in the local plan, and to demonstrate it has the consent of the community. We announced in the British Energy Security Strategy that we won’t introduce wholesale changes to planning regulations for onshore wind now.

We recognise that the cost of on-shore wind has fallen significantly over the last ten years. That is why in our energy strategy, we committed to develop on-shore wind partnerships that will enable supportive communities to host new on-shore wind infrastructure and enjoy the benefits of doing so, through developers supporting the local energy discounts and new community infrastructure projects. We will launch our consultation later this year on developing these partnerships for a limited number of supportive communities.