Department For Communities And Local Government (DCLG) Onshore Wind Guidance

Earlier this month, the Department for Communities and Local Government released 'Community Benefits for Onshore Wind Developments: Best Practice Guidance for England'. The guidance is relevant to all onshore wind developments, including those falling within the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime under the Planning Act 2008.

The guidance recognises that; "communities hosting renewable energy play a vital role in meeting our national need for secure, clean energy and it is absolutely right that they should be recognised and rewarded for their contribution".

Previous Government guidance relating to onshore wind and renewable technologies has been supportive of community involvement in the process, whether through community control of a benefits package or through ownership (or part ownership) of the renewable infrastructure. The DECC Community Energy Strategy published earlier this year is also consistent with this approach.

With this aim in mind, DCLG's Best Practice Guidance sets out guidance in relation to the nature of community benefits which are identified as "an important way of sharing the value that wind energy can bring with the local community".

The aim of the guidance is to; "help communities in England to better understand the opportunities available to them from community benefits and help communities, developers and local authorities in England to:

tailor community benefit packages to suit individual local communities' needs; be flexible in approach, to enable the best outcomes to be reached, for all involved, over time; and identify innovative solutions which can differentiate businesses in the market and put places on the map." The guidance shows developers how community benefits should be considered throughout the whole of the planning and consenting process from the feasibility stage to the operational stage (including case studies and checklists). The six overarching principles to be applied throughout the process are that community benefits packages should be:

Timely Transparent Constructive Inclusive Fair Unconditional In particular, constructive engagement will involve parties engaging in a positive manner, involving and considering a wide range of stakeholders (inclusive) it is also the principle...