Households near new pylons to get hundreds off energy bills
People living near new pylons in Great Britain will get hundreds of pounds off their bills, as part of government plans to boost energy infrastructure.
Households within 500m of new or upgraded pylons will get discounts of up to £2,500 over 10 years, equivalent to £250 a year.
The government said such incentives could help reduce opposition and delays to new projects, which are needed to deliver more clean energy.
However, rural campaign groups said it was "impossible to put a price on the loss of a landscape".
The bill discounts are expected to be in place from 2026.
The idea forms part of the government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is due to be published this week.
The legislation aims to speed up the building of new homes and infrastructure by cutting red tape and simplifying the planning process, and the government has put the changes at the heart of its push for economic growth.
Why more pylons could be headed your way
'I've saved £200 because of my local wind turbine'
Alongside money off bills, the government will publish new guidance on how developers should provide benefits to communities hosting transmission infrastructure, by funding projects like sports clubs, educational programmes or leisure facilities.
The government said this would mean communities could get £200,000 worth of funding per km of overhead electricity cable in their area, and £530,000 per substation.
The government is also looking at how communities near onshore wind farms and other energy infrastructure can receive benefits.
The plans were welcomed by RenewableUK, which represents the sector.
The group's head of policy, James Robottom, said bill discounts would "help to enable the roll-out of much-needed new grid infrastructure at a faster pace, so that we can make the most of the vast amounts of clean power we're producing".
However, Jackie Copley, campaign lead at CPRE, the countryside charity, said: "Investing in local green spaces or improving community infrastructure would be a better way to spend this money.
"Paying individuals comes with many problems, including questions of fairness, likely legal challenges, and the fact that it's impossible to put a price on the loss of a landscape."
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: "It is no longer a question of whether we build the new infrastructure we need but a question of how and this must be done in lockstep with local communities.
"This government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill will slash energy bills for local people living near new projects, so they benefit as we drive forward in our mission to achieve a more prosperous and energy secure future for the next generation."
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the plans would also "benefit the whole country by ensuring we build the clean power system we need".
The idea of giving people living near new pylons money off their energy bills was also proposed under the previous Conservative government.
A government survey in 2024 suggested 78% of people would find an energy infrastructure project more acceptable if they were offered discounts on their bills.
Some energy companies already offer bill discounts to customers who live near infrastructure like wind turbines, while grants are also available for local communities affected.
Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ed Miliband turns to nuclear power as blackout fears rise
Ed Miliband is to pump billions of pounds into a nuclear power renaissance to keep Britain's lights on. The Energy Secretary will on Tuesday commit £14.2bn to building two giant reactors at Sizewell, Suffolk, capable of providing 6m homes with electricity regardless of low winds and dark winter days. The heavy investment comes as fears rise that Mr Miliband's rush to build wind and solar farms is leaving the grid too exposed to the weather and vulnerable to outages. Over-reliance on intermittent renewables could even threaten blackouts of the kind that hit Spain in April, say experts. Nuclear generation is a reliable source of so-called baseload power, the minimum amount of demand on the grid. Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Miliband said the announcement marked a new 'golden age' for the British nuclear industry. He said: 'This challenge of energy security and the demands of the climate crisis mean that it is in our interests to shift as fast as possible to clean, home-grown power. 'The demand for that power is expected to at least double by 2050. That's why we need all the clean, home-grown sources that we can to meet the demands we face. New nuclear is a crucial source of firm, baseload power.' The money is in addition to the £3.6bn pledged by the previous Conservative government. It means Sizewell C is to receive a total of £17.8bn in public money between 2022 and 2029, with more to follow. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor is set to confirm the funding at the GMB Congress later on Tuesday ahead of the Government's spending review. Ms Reeves is to hand out £300bn more in public spending than was proposed by the Tories, following a record £40bn tax raid last year. The NHS is expected to receive an additional £30bn, meaning it will be among the biggest winners. An extra £113bn is also earmarked for infrastructure projects. However, day-to-day spending will be squeezed, with a real terms rise of 1.2pc in the next three years – down from 2.5pc in the last two years. Unprotected departments will face real terms cuts. A post-Brexit farming fund is expected to be reduced in size. There have also been clashes over police funding and social housing. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, became the last Cabinet minister to settle with the Treasury on Monday, following heated discussions that sources said had raised fears she might resign. As well as billions for Sizewell C, it is also expected that one of Europe's first programmes building small modular reactors (SMRs) will be confirmed. Partly built on production lines by engineering giants including Rolls-Royce, it is hoped these smaller and much cheaper nuclear power stations will allow Britain to more quickly replace the older plants that must be decommissioned in the coming years. Taxpayers will also contribute £2.5bn to a five-year investment in fusion research, which aims to unlock the nuclear reaction which powers the sun as a source of clean and cheap power on Earth. Nuclear power is seen as increasingly vital to protect Britain's power grids after the shutdowns of all its coal-fired power stations and the looming closures of many of the nation's 35 or so large gas-fired power stations. Such traditional 'thermal' power stations generate electricity by making steam that spins turbines. The rotating masses of metal are vital to stabilise the voltage and frequency of the power supplied to the grid – which is highly sensitive to even tiny fluctuations. In the UK, however, nuclear has always proved to be far more expensive than other sources of electricity. This is why, despite the UK opening the world's first commercial nuclear power station in the 1950s, no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995, with all of the existing fleet except Sizewell B likely to be phased out by the early 2030s. Energy analyst Kathryn Porter warned the UK was committing itself to an outdated and expensive reactor design at Sizewell C. She said: 'It's hard to imagine a 'golden age' of nuclear power with EDF's outdated and troubled reactor design. EDF in France is already looking to the next generation – building another of these older versions is a retrograde step. 'It's also highly unlikely that Sizewell C would be built faster than Hinkley given the lengthening of supply chains.' The costs for Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset, have risen from around £20bn to at least £42bn with some experts warning the final bill will come close to £50bn when it starts operating around 2031. Such unpredictable construction costs have made it difficult for the Government to find any companies willing to invest in Sizewell C. EDF, the French state energy company which is building Hinkley, has progressively reduced its stake in Sizewell C leaving the Government holding 84pc. Officials have been seeking foreign state investment including from the United Arab Emirates. Mr Miliband still refuses to divulge the estimated final cost of Sizewell C and negotiations with prospective partners are thought to still be under way. The best estimates to date suggest the power station will cost about £40bn. The money will come initially from the Treasury but it and other investors will recover the construction costs via a new levy, known as the Regulated Asset Base, to be added to consumer and business energy bills. The Government has claimed that this will initially cost only £12 per household per year, but experts say this would raise far less than needed – so the amounts are likely to increase, driving up energy bills. Andrew Bowie, Conservative shadow energy spokesman, said nuclear power offered a reliable and continuous source of electricity essential to balance the intermittency of renewables like wind and solar. 'We need to move to a lower-carbon electricity system that includes wind and solar. 'But we do not have the electricity storage capacity needed for times when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine. Nuclear will give us reliable baseload electricity to stabilise the system.' Richard Tice, Reform's energy spokesman, was also broadly supportive but criticised Mr Miliband for delays around commissioning SMRs as well. 'We need to accelerate our nuclear plans, but why is the Government being so slow to progress cheaper SMRs that can be delivered faster?'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
MP calls for ‘chronic under-supply' of Gypsy and Traveller sites to be addressed
A Labour MP has called on the Government to address the 'chronic under-supply' of Gypsy and Traveller sites across England. Mary Kelly Foy said planning decisions on these sites 'have frequently been underpinned by prejudice', with just 30 created over the past 30 years. The MP for City of Durham tabled an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which proposes that Gypsy and Traveller sites are included in spatial development strategies. Speaking in the Commons, she said: 'Today I rise to speak to amendment 134, in my name, that works towards addressing a long-standing and deeply entrenched failure in our planning system, the chronic under-supply of Gypsy and Traveller sites across England. 'And my amendment seeks to increase fairness into the system to enable, rather than hinder, the provision of adequate, culturally appropriate accommodation for Gypsy and Traveller communities. 'For too long, the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers have been overlooked by the planning system.' She added: 'The Government has committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes by 2029, if that ambition is to be truly inclusive, it must include everyone, and that means by making space, literally and politically, for communities who have been moved on, fenced off and forgotten.' Ms Foy said just 30 sites have been created over the past 30 years, adding: 'Decisions on Gypsy and Traveller sites have frequently been underpinned by prejudice, whether overt or institutional. 'Too often, proposed developments are blocked or delayed by local opposition that's not met with political will or leadership. 'Site delivery also suffers from a lack of inclusion at the strategic planning level, where Gypsy and Traveller site provision can be absent from local plans and excluded from land allocations. And this absence isn't an accident, it's a result of years of structural marginalisation that this Bill must now correct.' Ms Foy said the UK is 'seeing a troubling trend' with the number of socially rented pitches declining. She argued that leaving out Gypsy and Traveller sites from future strategies would be 'repeating mistakes of the past'.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom finally finds a cause: taking on Trump
The Democratic governor of liberal California has welcomed Donald Trump to his state, cosied up to Conservative podcasters, and slashed healthcare provisions for illegal immigrants this year. But the reinvention of Gavin Newsom as the sort of Democrat who might be able to win back Republican voters came to a shuddering halt during a weekend of riots. With Mr Trump ordering troops onto his streets, Mr Newsom hit back, accusing the president of intentionally inflaming a difficult situation. It leaves Mr Newsom with no choice but to halt his drift Right-ward, said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist. 'If not, he loses his entire constituency,' he said. 'In other words, there's a toleration level for moving to the centre, but not when it comes to massive chaos in Los Angeles.' Mr Newsom has put himself at the front of Democrat efforts to examine how they lost the 2024 election so badly. He launched a podcast in March in which he picks the brains of leading figures in Trump world. And Mr Newsom angered liberals with the very first episode, in which he interviewed Charlie Kirk, the controversial Conservative, when he said it was unfair that transgender athletes could compete in women's sport. He also said Democrats simply could not compete with the likes of Mr Trump and Elon Musk when it came to online reach. 'We're toast,' he said. Last month, facing a budget crunch, the telegenic governor back-pedalled on a promise of healthcare for all. He announced a freeze in enrolment for undocumented adults in the state's public health insurance programme. He has also urged cities to ban encampments for homeless people, cracking down on the tent cities that have blighted so much of California. And in January, he thanked Mr Trump for federal help in rebuilding after devastating wildfires that swept through Los Angeles. 'I've been always a hard-headed pragmatist,' he told reporters recently when quizzed about his shifting positions. 'I'm not an ideologue.' That all seems a long time ago after immigration raids around Los Angeles on Friday sparked three days of riots, and an order by Mr Trump to send in 2,000 National Guard troops. Tom Homan, the president's border tsar, threatened to arrest the California governor if he got in the way. 'Come and get me, tough guy,' was Mr Newsom's pithy response on X. After Mr Trump agreed the governor should be arrested, the governor shot back saying it was 'a line we cannot cross as a nation'. Credit: MSNBC He threatened to sue the federal government for its illegal act and called the president a 'stone cold liar' for failing to bring up his plan to send the National Guard when they spoke by telephone. 'There is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles and to do so in this unlawful manner and for such lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation while simultaneously depriving the state from deploying these personnel and resources where they are truly required,' he wrote in a letter. That puts him at the centre of the news headlines, said James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to Bill Clinton, even if it was too early to say that the party had finally found a national figurehead to oppose Mr Trump. But he said Mr Newsom's full-blooded reaction to Mr Trump and his tsar did not mark a reversal of his shift to the Right, but were compatible with his rejection of progressive totems such as identity politics. 'I don't think we should say we can render a verdict after 48 hours, but his actions have been totally what he would expect,' he said after Mr Trump had 'invaded' his state with troops. At the same time, he added, the crackdown on illegal immigrants remained a popular part of the platform that helped Republicans reclaim the White House last year. That leaves the governor and Democrats with a fine line to straddle: taking on Mr Trump over his decision to send in troops but without being painted as soft on illegal immigration or unrest in the streets. 'I think Trump sees all kinds of trouble on the horizon,' Mr Carville said. 'What he's very good at is just doing something to dominate the news.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
