Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will make an estimate of the cost to (a) the public purse and (b) energy bill payers of providing a scheme of community benefits to communities affected by the Norwich to Tilbury great grid upgrade.

We are committed to ensuring that communities who live near new clean energy infrastructure can see the benefits of this and are currently considering how to most effectively deliver this. This includes developing guidance on community benefits for electricity transmission network infrastructure, which we will publish in due course.

Whilst details of the guidance are still under development we are not able to estimate the costs of providing community benefits to communities affected by the Norwich to Tilbury grid upgrade. We will provide an update at the appropriate time.