Cheaper Energy

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1 It’s time to build, but our planning system is not delivering.

Households are facing sky-high energy bills because Britain is too reliant on foreign gas. To become energy secure, Britain needs to build more onshore and offshore wind, more solar, and more nuclear power stations. Yet as it stands, Britain takes too long to approve new energy projects leading to higher bills for you and your family.

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2 Critical infrastructure is being held up by excessive (and growing) bureaucratic rules.

New energy projects are greener than ever before but the number of administrative hurdles they face is growing. In less than a decade, the number of planning documents submitted for major energy projects has almost tripled. The number of pages needed for the UK’s largest infrastructure projects has almost doubled from 2014 to 2019.

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3 At a time of crisis, we cannot afford unnecessary delays.

The UK is building the world’s largest offshore wind farm, capable of powering over 3 million homes, but it won’t be completed until 2027 due to a year long planning delay. In theory, major infrastructure should be approved within 18 months but over half of these decisions have been late in the last three years.

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4 It wasn't always like this.

Britain split the atom, built the world's first commercial nuclear power station, and then built 9 more in under a decade. But it has been 27 years since we last finished one. We have the opportunity to lead the world again in deploying renewables, creating good jobs in the process, but that requires urgent reform.

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5 The rest of the world is taking action.

In response to surging energy prices, the EU is debating a new directive to suspend environmental impact assessments for new clean energy projects. While in the US, the Biden administration is putting forward proposals to streamline permitting processes for critical infrastructure.

In Britain, proposed legislation will reduce approval times and simplify complex habitat assessments for offshore wind. But we can and must go further to move to a cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy supply.

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6 Let’s accelerate approvals for clean energy to cut bills, create jobs, and make Britain more self-reliant.

Britain Remade is campaigning to make it easier to build critical energy infrastructure. Reform is needed to bring bills down, create skilled jobs in new clean industries, and reduce Britain’s dependence on imported energy. That’s why we want to lift the ban on onshore wind, slash approval times, and create new energy investment zones where clean energy projects get fast-track consent.