Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impacts of making community benefit payments for onshore wind developments in England a statutory requirement.

The ‘Community benefits and shared ownership for low carbon energy infrastructure: working paper’ (published in May 2025) sought views on the level of contributions, calculation methods and the scope of technologies to help assess these impacts to ensure that any scheme delivers benefits that outweigh potential costs. We will publish a Government response shortly. Additionally, we note that community benefits provision is already well-established in the onshore wind sector on a voluntary basis, meaning many developers factor this into their existing project practices.

Any decision on mandating community benefits will be informed by stakeholder feedback and follow an impact assessment.