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1663 6 JUNE 2013 Onshore Wind (Planning Policy) 1664
Onshore Wind (Planning Policy)
10.30 am
Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con) (Urgent
Question): To ask the Minister for Housing if he will
make a statement on planning policy in relation to
onshore wind.
The Minister for Housing (Mr Mark Prisk): The
coalition agreement pledged to decentralise power to
local people. We are committed to giving local people
far more ability to shape the places in which they live.
Through a series of reforms, this coalition Government
are making the planning process more accessible to
local communities. Planning works best when communities
themselves have the opportunity to influence the decisions
that affect their lives. However, current planning decisions
on onshore wind do not always reflect a locally led
planning system.
Following a wide range of representations, including
the letter of 30 January 2012 to the Prime Minister from
100 hon. Members, and in light of the Department of
Energy and Climate Change’s call for evidence, it has
become clear that action is needed to deliver the balance
expected by the national planning policy framework.
We need to ensure that protecting the local environment
is properly considered alongside the broader issues of
protecting the global environment. Today my right hon.
Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate
Change has published the response to his call for evidence
on onshore wind and my right hon. Friend the Secretary
of State for Communities and Local Government is
publishing a written ministerial statement that will set
out a number of key changes that I know the House will
wish to consider. Let me set out the key elements for the
benefit of the House and my hon. Friend the Member
for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris).
First, we want to strengthen the voice of local people.
The submissions to the call for evidence have highlighted
the benefits of good quality pre-application discussions
for onshore wind development and the improved outcomes
they can have for local communities. We will amend
secondary legislation to make pre-application consultation
with local communities compulsory for the more significant
onshore wind applications. This will ensure that community
engagement takes place at an earlier stage and may
assist in improving the quality of proposed onshore
wind development. It will also complement the community
benefits proposals announced by the Secretary of State
for Energy and Climate Change.
Secondly, on better planning guidance, the national
planning policy framework we published last year includes
strong protections for the natural and historic environment.
However, I know that local communities have genuine
concerns that insufficient weight is being given to
environmental considerations such as landscape, amenity
or heritage. We need to ensure that decisions get the
environmental balance right, in line with the framework,
and that any adverse impact from a wind farm development
is addressed satisfactorily.
We have been equally clear that this means facilitating
sustainable development in suitable locations. Put simply,
meeting our energy goals should not be used to justify
the wrong development in the wrong location. We are
looking to local councils to include in their local plans
policies that ensure that adverse impacts from wind
farm developments, including cumulative landscape and
visual impact, are addressed satisfactorily. Where councils
have identified areas suitable for onshore wind, they
should not feel they have to give permission for speculative
applications outside those areas when they judge the
impact to be unacceptable.
To help to ensure that planning decisions reflect the
balance in the framework, my Department will shortly
issue new planning practice guidance to assist local
councils and planning inspectors in their consideration
of local plans and individual applications. Briefly, the
guidance will set out, first, that the need for renewable
energy does not automatically override environmental
protections and the planning concerns of local communities.
Secondly, decisions should take into account the cumulative
impact of wind turbines and properly reflect the increasing
impact on the landscape and local amenity. Thirdly,
local topography should be a factor in assessing whether
wind turbines have a damaging impact on the landscape.
Fourthly, great care should be taken to ensure that
heritage assets are conserved in a manner appropriate
to their significance, including the impact of proposals
on views important to their setting.
We will be writing to the Planning Inspectorate and
to all councils to flag up the new guidance and its
operation. This Government firmly believe that renewables
have an important role to play in a balanced energy
policy. However, as a localist Government, we also firmly
believe that planning works best when local people are
able to shape their local environment.
Chris Heaton-Harris: Thank you for granting this
urgent question, Mr Speaker. I should like to draw the
House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’
Financial Interests.
I thank the Minister for his reply, but it is a shame
that this was not announced to the House first. Should
the Department of Energy and Climate Change have
been briefing the media on this announcement 24 hours
before it was announced in this place, especially when
its planning element comes from the Department for
Communities and Local Government and is time-sensitive
and commercially significant? What will be the impact
of the policy change on proposed developments that
are currently in the planning process, particularly those
that are in the planning appeals system and whose
appeal has been concluded but the result is not yet
known? Will the proposed change be retrospective for
schemes that have been granted planning permission
against the wishes of the local communities or councils,
but whose construction has not yet started?
For too long, developers have ridden roughshod over
the views of local communities and local councils on
inappropriately sited wind turbines. Can the Minister
elaborate on how the new policy will be communicated
to the Planning Inspectorate and local planning authorities,
and on the timeline that will be involved?
There might have been some confusion within
Government Departments about these matters, but I
wholeheartedly welcome the planning changes. I really
believe that this could be the beginning of the end of
unwanted onshore wind farm development in England,
and I welcome the Minister’s statement.
Several hon. Members rose—