People living near power cables could receive £250 a year off their energy bills as the UK government hopes to speed up construction of infrastructure vital to the transition away from fossil fuels.
Households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded power infrastructure could receive up to £2,500 over 10 years under Labour government plans that aim to prevent a backlash against increased building of pylons and substations.
It came as the government also promised to reduce the number of government bodies whose advice is needed for planning applications for housing or for energy.
Keir Starmer has said that speeding up building is a key part of his plans to grow the UK economy, arguing that planning rules have held back housing and infrastructure.
The building boom is particularly important for the energy minister, Ed Miliband, as he plots a rapid shift to renewable power generation. Energy companies that operate Great Britain’s electricity grid have promised to spend up to £77bn over five years in order to link wind turbines and solar panels to homes, offices and factories.
The power lines will be crucial to achieving the government’s target of making the energy system net zero by 2030. Yet the government is also braced for a backlash, and will create community funds to build facilities such as sports pitches and youth centres in affected areas, under plans first reported by the Times.
Alex Norris, the housing and communities minister, on Monday told Sky News: “As part of our plan for change, around being a clean energy superpower, we’re clear that communities need to share the benefits.
“If you are making that sacrifice of having some of the infrastructure in your community, you should get some of the money back,” he said. “So we’re making that commitment of £250 a year if you are near those pylons. We think that’s a fair balance between people who are making that commitment to the country themselves, and how they should be rewarded.”
The government also said that it was consulting on preventing statutory bodies such as Sport England, Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust from advising on planning decisions, in an effort to speed up building. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said advice will be limited to heritage, safety and environmental protection.
As the government prepares to introduce the planning and infrastructure bill on Tuesday, Angela Rayner, the housing minister and deputy prime minister, said the planning system needed to be “sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need”.
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Statutory bodies were taking too long to issue advice, and often had unreasonable, “gold-plated” demands, the government said on Monday. In the past three years more than 300 applications had to be decided by the secretary of state directly because of disagreements.
The government cited the example of a development in Bradford to create 140 new homes next to a cricket club, which was “significantly delayed because the application was thought to have not adequately considered the speed of cricket balls”.
However, the government said that planning rules will remain in place banning building on open spaces or sports and recreational land, including playing fields, “unless an assessment has shown the space to be surplus to requirements or it will be replaced by equivalent or better provision”.
