Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the Offshore Transmission Network Review did not involve a comparative assessment of alternative brownfield sites closer to London for offshore wind power connections to the grid than sites in East Anglia.

The Offshore Transmission Network Review seeks address the uncoordinated growth of offshore transmission assets and develop a more coordinated approach to the design and delivery of transmission for offshore wind in Great Britain. For projects that already had firm connection contracts, limited changes could be made without breaking those commercial contracts, which is something the government has no power to do. For these projects, the Government has launched a £100m funding scheme to support developers to develop options for voluntary coordination. This could include reconsideration of some cable routes to reduce landing zones and use brownfield sites.