Energy BILL [ Lords ] (Fourth sitting)

Simon Hoare Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Andrea Leadsom]

The hon. Gentleman made two points, the first on the manifesto commitment. I want to reassure him completely. As my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry pointed out, we set out a clear commitment in our manifesto to give local people the final say on wind farm applications.

“When determining planning applications for wind energy development involving one or more wind turbines, local planning authorities should only grant planning permission if: the development site is in an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in a local or neighbourhood plan; and following consultation, it can be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by affected local communities have been fully addressed and therefore the proposal has their backing.”—[Official Report, 18 June 2015; Vol. 597, c. 9WS.]

That is taken from the written ministerial statement from the Department for Communities and Local Government on changes to planning rules. The new planning tests reflect the Government view that wind turbines should get the go-ahead only when local people have said that they want them, and where.

To reply to the hon. Gentleman’s specific points on amendments to legislation, in order to achieve our goal of giving local communities the final say, we have to amend the Planning Act 2008 and the Electricity Act 1989 to put decision making into the town and country planning regime. The planning order that is laid does no more than that. Secondary legislation makes no change to the town and country planning regime; it merely removes matters from the Planning Act 2008. I hope that I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that it is absolutely our intention to give local communities the final say on wind farm developments.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising his second point. The purpose of amendment 16 is to require the Secretary of State to report within six months after the Bill comes into force on how changes to renewable energy policy, including the changes stipulated in clause 79, have affected the UK’s ability to comply with the 2020 EU renewable target. The Government are already obliged to report on our progress towards decarbonisation of energy supply, the development of renewables and the development of energy efficiency. As the hon. Gentleman may be aware, we last reported our progress under the EU renewable energy directive on 21 January 2016, just under two weeks ago. The report says clearly that we surpassed the target for 2013 and 2014, with an average 6.3% of final energy consumption coming from renewable sources against a target of 5.4%. Renewable contributions to energy generation are increasing across heat, electricity and transport. Heat from renewable sources increased by 4.6% during 2014, a record 19.1% of electricity generation came from renewables in 2014 and the use of renewable biofuels for transport rose by 14% during 2014.

As well as the report of 21 January, we regularly publish statistics on energy use in a number of other publications. “Energy Trends” provides a quarterly update, the “Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics” is published annually, and statistics on greenhouse gas emissions, solar PV deployment, renewable heat incentive take-up and renewables obligation certificates and generation are published monthly. The 2013 electricity market reform delivery plan set out our ambition of achieving at least 30% of electricity from renewables in 2020. The hon. Gentleman will know that we are on course to achieve that, with renewables representing almost 20% of generation in 2014. I hope that I have reassured the hon. Gentleman. There are a lot of reports, and I am happy to send him details of each if it would be helpful to him.

I would like specifically to address the premise underlying the amendment, which concerns the impact of clause 79 on renewables deployment. The Government’s impact assessment has shown that we anticipate no foreseeable change in deployment rates arising from the implementation of clause 79. The clause simply sets out our plans to localise decision making for new onshore wind and not to change any of the support framework around onshore wind.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

I welcome local decision making for onshore wind. Will my hon. Friend confirm, for the benefit of my understanding if not that of anybody else on the Committee, that the clause means that applicants will no longer have the right to appeal a refusal to the planning inspectorate? Will she also confirm that it in no way removes an applicant’s right, if refused, to challenge the decision through the courts via a judicial review if the applicant feels that the local planning authority has erred in law or process?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I can confirm that the appeals process will remain, but the changes to the Planning Act 2008 mean that the consideration around local involvement and local acceptance will be stronger than in the past. The intention is that local people will have the final say, and any appeal will take that intention into account.

To return to the point made by the hon. Member for Southampton, Test, our review suggests that six months after implementation would be too soon to show any change. Planning applications, as he knows, generally take much longer than that. To report on the impact of deployment rates for onshore wind within such a short period after the legislation comes into effect would place an additional burden on local planning authorities to provide the necessary figures. We have been clear in our policy intent that we wish to reduce future burdens and red tape in relation to decision making for new onshore wind farms. To require local planning authorities to report on consent rates for new onshore windfarms would absolutely go against this, and may even be seen as an effort by the centre to exert influence over the local decision-making process.

We already regularly report on many energy statistics. I would be very happy to provide further information on this to hon. Members. It is not the Government’s intent to add further reporting burdens. On this basis, I hope the hon. Member for Southampton, Test will withdraw the amendment.