Onshore Wind and Solar Generation

Elaine Stewart Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Elaine Stewart (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for explaining why this motion is so important, and how it will unblock the system and unlock potential. The move to cleaner home-grown energy demands nationwide delivery of our critical infrastructure, yet the current planning system is holding that back. Without home-grown energy we will not have control over energy prices in the UK, and we need the infrastructure to deliver that. There will always be a degree of opposition to the development of wind farms—that is democracy—but it is how we respond to local concerns that makes a difference. Burying our head in the sand, as the Conservatives chose to do for 14 years, is simply not an option.

It is important to share some experiences of the development of wind farms from my constituency, and to be clear that Scotland is on a different track, as wind farm developments fall under national planning framework 4. I want to share two lessons from my constituency. People across the country understand and see the natural benefits that the infrastructure covered by motion will unblock. Those include local employment opportunities through construction and maintenance, a boost to the local economy, increased local spending and, of course, a legacy of endless clean energy. However, experience from my area shows that those natural benefits should be topped up by community benefits.

Lesson No. 1 is that there is a need for community benefits and a fair and transparent model of distributing them. The Nine Community Council Group in my constituency represents nine Cumnock and Doon Valley communities, which manage and distribute community benefits from multiple wind farm developments across the area. They embody a collaborative community approach to wind farm benefit, and that must be the way forward for the country.

Lesson No. 2 is to consider the impact of building this crucial infrastructure on other crucial infrastructure, such as roads. By their very nature, wind farms are often in rural areas where transport links are already under-resourced. In rural areas people use roads more to go to work, to shop, and for basic living. Building wind farms is a great boost to the local economy, but it can take its toll on the roads. That means that we need to do more to support and invest in maintaining good road links in those communities.

Those lessons are about taking people with us when it comes to the transition to clean energy. Ayrshire’s story is about making the move from coalfields to clean fields. It is one to be replicated, but we must ensure that our communities are onside in the process.