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
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.
Paragraph Reference:
144
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Government agrees that it is important to build support for development by ensuring communities directly benefit. As such government is reviewing how to effectively deliver community benefits for communities living near new electricity transmission network infrastructure. Government is considering a combination of direct benefits for properties closest to new transmission network infrastructure and community funds, in the form of funding that developers and communities can decide how best to spend in their local area. We will set out more details shortly. Regarding visual and community impact mitigation, the National Policy Statements guide decision-making for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in England and Wales, including large electricity network projects. These National Policy Statements cover criteria for good design, as well as criteria for addressing and mitigating landscape, visual, noise, and environmental impacts. The Government has separately agreed to progress a set of Electricity Transmission Design Principles (ETDP) which are being led by NESO. These are intended to provide clarity on infrastructure design in particular locations so that the design can be standardised as well as allowing for more meaningful discussion about choices with communities. In developing the ETDP, consideration will be given to minimising visual and community impacts.