Miliband to steamroll Nimbys with new pylon powers

Telegraph

09-07-2025

Ed Miliband is preparing to make it harder for landowners to block pylons on their property as the country races towards net zero.
The Energy Secretary has launched a consultation on relaxing planning rules to make it easier to build electricity infrastructure on private land as he seeks to speed up construction.
Under the proposals, measures will be introduced to give energy developers greater scope to overrule landowners – making it more difficult to stall vital developments.
It comes as Mr Miliband scrambles to meet his highly ambitious target of reaching a clean power system by 2030, which involves a significant increase in electricity use as the country weans itself off oil and gas.
The National Energy System Operator (Neso) has estimated that £60bn worth of upgrades are needed across the electricity network under Labour's plan for a clean power system, including some 600 miles of overland power lines.
The consultation comes after Mr Miliband vowed last year to 'take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists' amid a government push to stamp out objections from Nimbys, which stands for 'Not in my back yard'.
Sir Keir Starmer earlier this year vowed to put an end to 'challenge culture' by 'taking on the Nimbys and a broken system that has slowed down our progress as a nation'.
The Prime Minister also said building pylons in rural areas was a necessary step to bring down the cost of electricity, as part of his drive to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Under Mr Miliband's proposal, consents and access rights for network operators would be revised so they can build and maintain electricity infrastructure on private land with fewer delays.
Proposed reforms include changes to 'necessary wayleaves', a process that allows electricity companies to install infrastructure such as pylons or poles if they cannot reach an agreement with landowners.
Under those changes, companies in England and Wales could be granted necessary wayleaves for 40 years – nearly tripling the current duration of 15 years.
They would also be given double the amount of time to counter any formal landowner requests to remove network lines from their land, from three to six months.
There were 412 applications for necessary wayleaves in 2024, with the number expected to rise.
Virtual hearings on applications have also been proposed and it has been suggested that the responsibility for felling or lopping trees should be with the electricity network operators, rather than with the landowners.
The consultation is being carried out after a preliminary investigation by the Conservative government in 2022 suggested that negotiations over land rights led to significant delays and additional costs to delivering clean energy projects.
Michael Shanks, the energy minister, said: 'These reforms will address avoidable hold-ups in the land rights and consents process, that are leading to unnecessary costs and delays in connecting clean, homegrown electricity to the grid.
'This is part of this Government's plan to build an energy system that can bring down bills for good, and deliver on our Plan for Change to bring growth, green jobs and put more money back in people's pockets.'
In addition, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has proposed upping the maximum size for substations that can be built from 29 to 45 cubic metres.
The department said this was aimed at reducing the need to build two smaller substations next to each other.
Other reforms involve changes to consents for overhead pole lines, including increasing the heights and nominal voltages of poles, and making it easier for developers to access adjacent third-party land even if their landowners oppose it.
A blow to rural Britain
Jackie Copley, campaigns lead for CPRE, the countryside charity, said that there is a 'need for reform of land access rights and consents to progress quickly enough', adding that 'one can understand why the Government will be looking to streamline the process'.
'This consultation offers more clout to energy developers,' she said.
However, she said that much of the land affected would be rural, and 'without a shadow of a doubt, there are going to be impacts on our landscape'.
She said: 'Clearly, there is an implication for landowners and for existing farmers. What you don't want is for the speeding up rights of energy providers to have [any] impact on rural activity.
'You want to do both. You want to make sure rural places can still produce food and get on with [their] business.'
Existing pylon plans are already provoking objections from locals.
Farmers in rural Wales, for instance, are fighting Mr Miliband's nationwide pylon rollout by refusing to let an energy company on to their land.