Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Heaton-Harris Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Amber Rudd]

I am aware of the interesting boiler scheme that is being run in Northern Ireland. I welcome such initiatives to address the difficulty of fuel poverty and of reducing heat and carbon emissions. The Mayor of London has launched a similar scheme. We will look carefully at how that works to see whether we can adopt it in the United Kingdom.

[Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con)]

2. What progress she has made on ensuring that local authorities decide all onshore wind applications.

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)]

My hon. Friend has worked incredibly hard to support local communities in having their say on the siting of wind farms. The Department for Communities and Local Government updated planning guidance alongside its written ministerial statement on 18 June 2015, giving local authorities the final say. Now that the Energy Bill has completed its Committee stage, with my hon. Friend’s support, I can tell him that we are making excellent progress on delivering the Government’s manifesto commitment.

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I thank the Minister for that answer. Like me, she will know that the Conservative manifesto contained two pledges on onshore wind: one to remove subsidies and the other to change planning guidance. Given the growing concern about amplitude modulation coming from onshore wind turbines, when will planning guidance on that be given to local authorities?