Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the (a) economic cost of using pylons for electricity transmission, (b) the cost in respect of property values and (c) their cost in respect of lost taxation.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has commissioned analysis regarding the respective costs of underground electricity cables and overhead electricity lines. The Electricity Transmission Costing Study, which was published in 2012, can be found at:
http://www.theiet.org/factfiles/transmission.cfm.
The analysis found that while the costs of individual proposals will vary on a case by case basis, undergrounding is always more expensive than overhead lines. DECC has not carried out a specific analysis of the impact of transmission lines on property values or taxation.