UK leader Sunak ‘poised’ to overturn onshore wind ban

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly preparing to overturn a ban on building onshore wind farms that has stymied the sector for nearly a decade.

A law passed in 2015 has meant that an objection from even a single resident could thwart a planned onshore wind farm, amounting to a de facto ban on such projects in England where the rules apply.

Sharma had tabled an objection backed by the MPs to the UK government’s energy bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.

MPs are preparing to vote on that bill on Tuesday after returning from their summer break.

The UK’s Labour Party supports Sharma’s proposal, meaning that, together with the rebel Tories, only six more MPs would need to lend their support to the amendment for it to pass.

According to government sources, the changes would allow councils to “more flexibly address the planning impacts of onshore wind projects as identified by local communities”.

Speaking on the BBC on Sunday, UK celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has campaigned against the onshore wind ban, said: “The one thing we need to do for the young people of today is protect them from the devastating effects of the climate crisis and there’s an opportunity to do that this coming week.”

“It only takes one spanner to stop a wind turbine,” said Fearnley-Whittingstall, saying that that spanner has been the UK’s recently department energy secretary Grant Shapps, who was moved to the defence ministry last week.

“Now there is an opportunity to lift the ban on onshore wind and give us much more energy security and cheaper electricity bills” as well as fighting the climate crisis, which Fearnley-Whittingstall said is "absolutely at the heart of this”.

The Energy and Climate Change Intelligence Unit has estimated the ban on onshore wind cost UK billpayers £800m ($1bn) last winter in the midst of the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.