Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 38
38
Accepted
Paragraph: 137
Effective community engagement essential for successful energy infrastructure rollout and public acceptance
Conclusion
Early, well-run community engagement is an essential aspect of successful rollout of energy infrastructure. Communities who are engaged and invested, and who can have input into their local infrastructure, are more likely to accept a greater level of infrastructure and support the energy transition more broadly.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the importance of community engagement, stating that existing planning routes (NPPF, NSIP regime) already encourage and mandate pre-application community engagement. They also recently launched updated guidance for the pre-application stage of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in April 2024.
Paragraph Reference:
137
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
There are established routes in the planning system to consider the impacts of infrastructure projects and to enable communities to raise concerns about developments in their area. The National Planning Policy Framework, which underlies the planning system for these projects, encourages developers to engage with local communities pre-application. Local authorities will consider a range of factors when assessing applications, including visual and environmental impacts. Members of the public can submit their views to the planning authorities and significant concerns will be taken into account as part of the local decision-making process. For larger projects, planning decisions are made through the NSIP regime. The NSIP regime is a rigorous process designed to scrutinise larger projects. Developers taking projects through the NSIP regime must complete considerable community engagement before any application is made–giving communities ample opportunity to feed in their views. The level and quality of community engagement, amongst other factors, will be taken into account by decision-makers. In April 2024, the Government launched new and updated guidance on the ‘National Infrastructure Planning Guidance Portal’, the new digital repository for providing access to and updates on the status of existing and new National Infrastructure Planning Guidance. Updated guidance was published for the pre-application stage for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.