At £42 per MW, onshore wind is more than twice as cheap as gas, but building new turbines in England is effectively banned. Planning rules from 2015 mean just a single objection can kill a project. As a result, only two onshore turbines were built in England over the last three years.

In 2020 and 2021, France added enough new onshore wind turbines to power almost two million homes, Germany enough to power two and a half million homes, and the USA added enough onshore wind turbines to power a massive 22 million homes.

Britain no longer imports Russian gas directly, but Putin’s war machine still benefits from high global gas prices. If more power was generated from cheap, clean, domestic sources such as onshore wind, demand for expensive dirty imported gas would fall.

Britain Remade polling found that more than two-thirds of English people would support onshore wind farms being built in their local area. At the same time, only 11% opposed allowing onshore wind projects to go ahead when a majority of local residents supported the project.

Under England’s ban, one objector can block a project even if it has majority local support. We think that is unfair. Our alternative would be a two-step process where if more than 20% of local residents sign a petition opposing an onshore wind project, the proposal is put to a local referendum. Unlike the government’s undemocratic ban, the Community Safeguard would allow onshore wind projects supported by local people to be built, while those without local support wouldn’t go ahead.

New onshore wind farms are effectively banned in England.

Government rules, introduced in 2015, mean just one objection to an onshore wind farm can stop an entire project being built.

Onshore wind is one of the cheapest and cleanest forms of energy available, but instead of creating that energy here, we’re paying sky-high bills and lining Putin’s pockets buying foreign gas.

Sign our petition here