Now ban on onshore wind farms will stay as Rishi Sunak axes another Liz Truss policy

• Another key Liz Truss policy is scrapped as ban on onshore wind farms remains
• Wind farms must have the backing of local people, Oliver Dowden confirms
• Labour’s Ed Miliband criticised the ban, saying it would drive up energy bills  

Building new onshore wind farms will remain banned in England after Rishi Sunak scrapped another Liz Truss policy.

The former PM and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng had promised to change planning rules so that the giant turbines could be ‘deployed more easily’ in the countryside.

But like much of their doomed ‘Growth Plan’ – which also included lifting the ban on fracking – the move has been dumped by successors.

Ban on onshore wind will remain after all after government scraps key policy in Liz Truss ‘Growth Plan’

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said that the effective ban on onshore wind, which was introduced in 2015, would remain through rules that mean wind farms must have the backing of local people. 

He told Sky News that it was important to strike the ‘right balance’ between ‘recognising local feeling’ and investing in renewable energy offshore.

Oliver Dowden confirmed that the ban on onshore wind would remain, effectively scrapping plans made by the former PM

Whitehall sources also told the Daily Mail the rules will not be changed ‘for now’. 

But Labour’s climate change spokesman Ed Miliband said keeping the ban was ‘terrible’ and would drive up energy bills.  

He said: ‘It will continue to drive up their bills by £15 billion between now and 2030 if this ban remains in place.

Labour’s climate change spokesperson Ed Miliband is at odds with the government’s position on onshore wind

‘So, the government is saying now to the cheapest and cleanest form of power and by the way, it is going back on a promise that Jacob Rees-Mogg made in the period when he was being Business Secretary, when he said that they would bring the consenting review for onshore wind in line with other infrastructure.

‘It makes no sense and it makes a complete joke, frankly, of Rishi Sunak, the man who couldn’t even decide whether he was going to go to COP27, it makes a complete joke of the idea that he is somehow a leader on clean energy.’

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