Gas was trading at £6.40 per therm at the peak of the energy crisis. Two years before, that price was 25p per therm. Even one year before, the price was only £1.15. It is an unparalleled situation. As fossil fuels take their toll on the public and Government alike, the transition to renewable energy is now surely a foregone conclusion?

Yet the Government approach indicates otherwise. Rishi Sunak will reverse one of Liz Truss’s more welcomed proposals: to ditch restrictions on onshore wind in the UK by easing planning requirements. The Prime Minister also said he would '[make] sure our fields are used for food production and not solar panels' during his initial leadership contest with Truss. If this manifests as a reclassification of grade 3b land as best and most versatile (BMV), developing new solar photovoltaic (PV) assets of any significant scale could soon be rendered near impossible in the majority of cases, and that’s before accessibility to the grid is appraised.

This is no longer a question of subsidising renewables. That era has long since passed and the planning pipeline for renewable energy projects is arguably stronger now than pre-2015, when subsidies were still available. Instead, it is a question of avoiding and removing effective bans on ground-mounted solar PV and onshore wind respectively. With this liberalisation, the sector will undoubtedly push ahead under its own steam.

Rationalising the irrational

Why is the Government pursuing such a strategy? Is it perceived as a vote winner? Evidence from the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) suggests it is not. As of spring 2022, the Public Attitudes Tracker showed 85 per cent of those surveyed support the use of renewable energy and almost two-thirds of those strongly support the use of renewable energy.

Perhaps then it is a matter of location. Perhaps people are in favour of renewable energy but not in their back yard. Evidence suggests not. While support is reduced, it still accounts for the overwhelming majority of opinions. For onshore wind farms, 43 per cent are in some way 'happy' to see one constructed in their local area and 27 per cent are indifferent. Only 5 per cent would be 'very unhappy'.

Or could it be explained as an appeasement of attitudes in certain key areas such as former 'red wall' regions which guaranteed a Conservative victory in 2019, or traditional Tory heartlands in the South? 44 per cent of respondents in the North West were either 'fairly' or 'very' happy to see local onshore wind. In the South East, popular opinion is arguably even more in favour of local onshore wind: 46 per cent happy and 13 per cent unhappy. Still no explanation for the current policy situation.

Out of ideas

Of course there are other factors at play, but energy is undeniably one of the foremost topics in the public’s mind at present. Even interplay between energy and other concerns such as food security cannot be blamed – Savills research on energy security and infrastructure found that less than 1 per cent of the total UK land area would need to be handed over to renewable energy projects in order to satisfy net zero electricity targets.

There seems to be no practical or political explanation as to why renewable energy is being treated as it is. After all, which politician would willingly turn down close to half of the vote share, particularly in light of recent political turmoil? Recent announcements suggest not. The Government appears to be backtracking on plans to extend its ban on solar for high-grade farmland to land categorised as 3b. A consultation on scrapping the moratorium on new windfarms is also expected in the coming weeks.

Further information

Contact Joe Lloyd

Savills Rural Research