Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 41
41
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 144
Poorly executed community engagement and benefits hinder energy infrastructure development and acceptance
Conclusion
Engaging early and fully with local communities to explain why renewable energy infrastructure through their area is necessary and of benefit to them is essential to ensure positive public participation and acceptance. Badly-designed community benefits, or those forced upon communities without adequate consultation, can create tension and objection to new infrastructure while adding costs to consumer bills nationwide. Approaches to engagement and consultation which are poorly thought out or ineptly executed will not help to speed up infrastructure development and will be likely to cause more resistance to its deployment overall.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government agrees on the importance of community benefits to build support for development and is currently reviewing how to effectively deliver them, considering a combination of direct benefits and community funds, with details to be set out shortly.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
144
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
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.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗