Pylons to be forced on public to hit net zero goal

DESNZ, run by Grant Shapps, the Energy Security Secretary, is said to be supportive of detailed plans submitted by National Grid for radical planning reform. This would be followed by a separate document setting out specific schemes, including electricity transmission cables, pylons and wind farms, that form part of the Government’s net zero plans – in order to put the “full weight of planning law” behind each of the specific proposals. But he added: “You can’t really accept that those local concerns are going to prevent the major transitions that this country has got to make over the next 20 years in dealing with net zero, dealing with climate change, and fundamentally in terms of the transmission lines, electrifying our country in a way that it’s not relied on electricity to such a large degree in the past.” Mr Pettigrew added: “The more clarity you have in the policy and the easier it is for the inspector to then make a decision.” He added that currently, “if there are local communities that feel that the balance hasn’t been structured correctly between where it’s landing and how it impacts their community, then they can take a secretary of state to judicial review”. “By doing that, then, if the Planning Inspectorate follows that policy, then there’s less ambiguity and therefore less likelihood that it will be legally challenged, which quite often happens in these processes.” National Grid has proposed that the Government wins support from local communities with incentives such as lower energy bills for those living near new energy infrastructure. “And there are going to be areas of the country, as we’re seeing in East Anglia, where you haven’t had electrical infrastructure before and now you’re going have a lot more – and that’s a change.” Maps drawn up by National Grid show hundreds of miles of new pylons and overhead cables which it says need to be completed by 2030, including a 112-mile power line between Norwich and Tilbury to connect two wind farms off the Suffolk coast.