Call for onshore wind farm planning rules to be changed

Future planning decisions about large onshore wind farms should be taken out of the hands of local authorities in England and Wales, government advisors have said.

Instead, big onshore wind projects should be treated as "nationally significant", the National Infrastructure Commission said.

This would allow major schemes to bypass local planning requirements.

There has been an effective moratorium on onshore wind development since 2016.

Guidance on where onshore turbines can be built mean very few new schemes have gained approval, despite the need to shift UK power generation away from fossil fuels and towards renewables to meet 2050 climate targets.

More than two thirds of the UK population are not opposed to onshore wind farms, but 12% of people would not be happy about a wind farm being constructed locally.

In a report, the National Infrastructure Commission recommended that big onshore wind schemes should be included in the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects framework.

This is a system which allows major schemes to bypass local planning requirements. Until 2016, onshore wind was included in the system, but was later removed, returning decisions over new projects to local authorities.

This, together with the introduction of much tighter planning restrictions in the National Planning Policy Framework, meant very few new projects were approved.

In December last year, the government pledged to relax the restrictions on building onshore wind farms, after a revolt from Tory MPs.

A government spokesperson said that it would respond to the new report and was already "reforming the planning process to clear the path for the energy infrastructure we need".

Last year, the government launched a consultation on possible reforms to the planning system, to make it easier for onshore wind projects to gain approval.

At the time, it said decisions on possible sites should continue to be taken at local level.

Such changes would not affect Scotland, which has its own planning regime, and which has not been covered by the moratorium.

Energy industry group RenewableUK said bringing the planning rules for onshore wind in line with other types of energy infrastructure, as suggested in the Commission's report, would let wind farm applications be determined on their merits.

The group's head of onshore wind, James Robottom, said the government's current proposed planning changes "do almost nothing to remove the current de facto ban" on planning permission for turbines.

The Commission's proposals "would help to speed up the lengthy planning process and enable us to build vital new clean energy infrastructure faster, cutting bills for consumers and strengthening Britain's energy security" he added.