The government has published the following (partial) response to the consultation titled "Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill - reforms to national planning policy" (which ran for 10 weeks from 22/12/2022 until 02/03/2023):
Response document:
- September 2023: Onshore wind national planning policy reform - government response (September 2023) (link) (pdf print version of HTML webpage).
Note: The above response document covers the part of the consultation relating to onshore wind (i.e. Questions 41-43 within the consultation document).
Notes:
- The "Government response" section within the above response document includes the following information:
- "Having considered the responses, we are proceeding with changes to national planning policy for onshore wind which take forward the proposals which were consulted upon, with minor changes to reflect responses and provide clarity on how policy should be applied in practice. Our formal response to the other proposals in the consultation will be published later this year. A fuller review of the Framework will also be required in due course, in response to the government’s proposals for wider changes to the planning system being taken forward through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.".
- "We are amending the planning tests for proposed onshore wind developments to make clear that suitable locations can be identified in a number of ways (rather than solely through an area’s development plan).".
- "The government acknowledges the reservations that some respondents had about how to assess whether planning impacts identified by the local community have been addressed. We are taking forward the change in the requirement for planning impacts identified by the affected community being “fully addressed” to “appropriately addressed”, so that local authorities can more flexibly address the planning impacts of onshore wind projects as identified by local communities. We will be updating planning practice guidance to support these changes in practice.". - Note: For more information about this topic, please view the above response document.
Other sources of information: