Onshore wind 'ban' lifted

Environmentalists and the renewable industry have tentatively welcomed the government's plan to end a de facto ban on onshore windfarms in England.

- ADAM FORREST

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-Budget "growth plan," said the government would make sure rules for onshore wind turbines were in line with other energy developments. Rules that were put in place in 2015 have effectively stopped the construction of any onshore wind farms in the UK in the past seven years.

The promised reforms will bring onshore wind planning policy in line with other infrastructure to allow it to be deployed more easily in England”.

Dan McGrail, the chief executive of trade body Renewable UK, said removing the block on onshore turbines would mean significantly cheaper electricity for hard-pressed bill payers in areas where projects have local support”.

Jess Ralston, the senior analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said around eight in 10 people support onshore wind. The ban has been a major anomaly in British energy policy given it’s both cheap and popular with the public.”