Any decision on the role of fracking and onshore wind in the Government’s energy strategy will be made with a “large measure of local consent”, the Business Secretary has said.
Speaking ahead of the expected release of the strategy on Thursday, Kwasi Kwarteng told the Sunday Telegraph that local opposition to either option will be taken into account.
“The thing with onshore wind and with fracking is that it has to be community consent,” he said.
“We don’t live in a totalitarian country where the Government, the man or woman in Whitehall, can say ‘Right, we’re going to do this’, without some large measure of consent from local communities. And in both of those technologies, frankly, there has been considerable local opposition.
“That doesn’t mean to say we’re shutting the door on both, but it does mean that any movement has to have a large measure of local consent.”
He added that, while he would be comfortable living next to a set of wind turbines, that would not overrule any local dissent.
“It’s not up to me, it doesn’t matter what I think,” he said.
“If there’s a plan in a particular community, it’s what they think that matters. It’s not my aesthetic preference that’s going to determine it.”
The Sunday Telegraph also reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to announce plans to expand the Government’s commitment to move forward with new large-scale nuclear power stations this decade.
