Recommendation 27

We welcome a more strategic approach to energy infrastructure planning that integrates the pursuit of climate and biodiversity goals and enables the early consideration of nature protection on a habitat-wide basis. We are encouraged to see this ambition reflected in the Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) Methodology, the Land Use Framework (LUF) and the National Energy System Operator (NESO)’s high-level methodology principles for the Centralised Strategic Network Plan (CSNP). We recognise that these plans are still in development. However, the decision to subject the SSEP and the CSNP to detailed environmental assessments strengthens our conclusion that, if they realise this ambition, these strategic plans should be given weight in the determination of applications for development consent. (Conclusion, Paragraph 77)