Government consultation on on-shore wind planning reform

Campaigners fear government will drop onshore windfarm promise in England. Fears that the government is quietly planning to renege on promises to lift the ban on onshore windfarms in England have prompted a large group of green campaigners, business leaders and prominent figures to protest to ministers.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef and environmental campaigner, has led a letter to secretaries of state, signed by conservation groups, academics and business people who are concerned that the pledges to free up planning restrictions are being quietly subverted.

The effective ban was put in place in 2015 by tightening planning restrictions in the National Planning Policy Framework. To end the ban, the relevant planning regulations should be scrapped or clearly reformed.

The letter warns: “The proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework which are currently under consultation are entirely inadequate to bring about the required change in policy. The decision to replace [paragraph 158] Footnote 54 with some marginally revised wording, in the form of new Footnotes 62 & 63, looks to be almost identical in effect, and inevitably means the effective ban will remain in place.”

The footnotes refer to a clause in the framework that effectively excludes onshore windfarms. The signatories called for the removal of these footnotes, to place onshore wind planning applications on the same planning basis as other onshore infrastructure projects.​