Shapps signals backdown on wind farm curbs

The government looks set to back down on its resistance to a relaxation of the planning regime for onshore wind farms.

Simon Clarke, who left the Cabinet after Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss as prime minister last month, has tabled an amendment to the government’s levelling up legislation that is designed to ease the planning rules for onshore wind.

Planning rules for onshore turbines were tightened in the wake of the Conservative victory in the 2015 general election.

Onshore wind farms were excluded from the list of projects that qualify for the status of nationally significant infrastructure project.

In addition, the Town and Country Planning Act was amended to make public consultation mandatory before wind farms can even be considered, unlike any other form of development.

Ex-chancellor of the exchequer Kwasi’s Kwarteng announced moves in his subsequently discredited ‘mini-Budget’ in September to bring onshore wind planning policy “in line” with other infrastructure to allow it to be deployed more easily in England.

However, the government has since backpedalled on moves to relax restrictions on onshore wind, which is deeply unpopular amongst some backbench MPs and Tory activists, since Sunak took over as prime minister last month.

Clarke, who left the Cabinet to return to the backbenches after Sunak became PM, has tabled an amendment to the government’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB) to ease the planning rules for onshore wind projects.

The amendment would revise the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that councils are permitted to grant onshore wind applications both on new sites and to repower existing installations.

However, he has said that under his amendment, local communities would have the right to turn down onshore wind farms.

The amendment has won the backing of ex-PMs Truss and Boris Johnson while the Daily Telegraph has reported that Michael Gove, who took over from Clarke last month as levelling up secretary of state, also backs the move.

The scale of Tory backbench support for Clarke’s amendment means that the government would be likely to lose any vote in the House of Commons to relax planning restrictions on onshore wind, which the Labour party also backs.

This morning in media interviews, business and energy secretary Grant Shapps denied that the Conservative Party is split on the issue insisting Clarke’s amendment aligns with the government policy that wind farms should be allowed where local people back them.

Ana Musat, RenewableUK’s executive director of policy, said the LURB is an “ideal opportunity to lift the de facto ban on onshore wind in England” by changing planning legislation.