Onshore wind farm ban scrapped in mini-Budget

Campaigners welcome move – but condemn fossil fuel push and plan to weaken environmental protections

Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire (PA)

Environmentalists and the renewable industry chiefs have tentatively welcomed the Liz Truss government’s plan to end a de facto ban on onshore windfarms in England.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget “growth plan” said the government would make sure rules for onshore wind turbines were in line with other energy developments.

Rules that were put in place in 2015 have effectively stopped the construction of any onshore wind farms in the UK in the past seven years.