As part of the UK Government’s Plan for Change mission to become a clean energy superpower, new proposals will deliver a cash boost to Britain’s coastal and rural communities in exchange for hosting low-carbon energy infrastructure such as offshore wind, onshore wind, and solar farms.
Under the plans, renewable energy developers will be legally required to pay into community benefit funds, ensuring that infrastructure projects directly benefit local people, businesses, and services. This forms a central pillar of the wider green transition, delivering regional economic growth, shared ownership opportunities, and community wealth building.
Communities situated near clean energy infrastructure would receive investment in local priorities —such as community centres, grassroots sports facilities, transport links, schools, and employment programmes — with local residents empowered to decide where funding is spent. This is promoting shared ownership models which could also allow communities to take a stake in the infrastructure, with profits reinvested back into the area.
Find more information here.
Views from industry and stakeholders on these proposals are invited until Wednesday 16 July. The working paper can be found here.
