The government has vowed to speed up the building of wind farms with radical reforms to the planning system.
The government has vowed to speed up the building of wind farms with radical reforms to the planning system.
Speaking last night at a Fabian Society lecture hosted by the RICS, John Hutton MP, secretary of state for business, enterprise and regulatory reform, said drastic action was needed if the UK was to meet its target of deriving 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The current share of renewables is just 4.6%.
The new planning bill, to be unveiled when parliament re-opens on 6 November, will create an Infrastructure Planning Commission that will handle applications for all wind farms generating more than 50 megawatts, taking power away from local authorities.
Hutton said there were 56 wind farm applications which had been stuck in the planning system for more than two years. Local authorities refused half of all planning applications for onshore wind farms in the year 2006-2007.
‘It’s no good saying renewable energy is good in principle but not in practice,’ said Hutton. ‘We are frustratingly close to a dramatic escalation of renewable energy in the UK but it’s being held back by a failing planning system.’