Clean power 2030 action plan: Impact on rural communities

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 22 April 2026:

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the ‘Clean power 2030 action plan’ upon rural communities.

1. Clean power 2030 action plan

The Labour Party committed to reaching “clean power by 2030” in its 2024 general election manifesto.^[1] Shortly after the election, the Labour government said its clean power mission was to transition away from fossil fuels to “clean, homegrown power” that could “boost Britain’s energy independence and cut bills for the British people”.^[2] Then, in December 2024, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) published the ‘Clean power 2030 action plan’.^[3] In this plan, the government defined its clean power 2030 target as follows:

In a typical weather year, the 2030 power system [would] see clean sources produce at least as much power as Great Britain consumes in total over the whole year, and at least 95% of Great Britain’s generation; reducing the carbon intensity of our generation from 171g CO2e/kWh in 2031 to well below 50g CO2e/kWh in 2030.^[4]

The core aims of the government’s clean power 2030 target are to:^[5]

• maintain a secure and affordable energy supply in an increasingly unstable world
• create new industries and investments around the country
• protect the environment we live in from the most damaging effects of climate change

The plan set out various actions for how the clean power 2030 target would be achieved.^[6] This included actions to accelerate delivery of new energy infrastructure projects. The government has said the clean power 2030 target would be “the backbone” of the transition to net zero and would sit alongside other policies for developing Great Britain’s energy system.^[7] Advice from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) informed the plan.^[8] NESO is a publicly owned organisation responsible for overseeing Great Britain’s energy networks.

2. Progress towards the clean power 2030 target

The DESNZ publishes energy trends bulletins on a quarterly basis.^[9] These bulletins include progress updates towards the clean power 2030 target, the latest outcomes of which are set out in table 1 of this briefing.

(UK Government, ‘Energy trends, UK: October to December 2025’, 2 April 2026, p 18)

For more information on the methodology used to calculate Great Britain’s clean power 2030 metrics and a time series of the data, please see the DESNZ’s ‘Clean power 2030 metrics’ (updated 2 April 2026). For additional analysis on the progress made towards the clean power 2030 metrics, see the House of Commons Library briefing ‘Clean power targets’ (14 January 2026).

3. Impact on rural communities

Delivering the government’s ambitions for clean power would require “rapid delivery of 80 network and enabling infrastructure projects”, according to NESO and as cited in the clean power 2030 plan.^[10] The government said that by 2030 around twice as many new electricity transmission networks would be needed compared to the number built in the past decade. The government has announced various reforms to the planning system amongst other things that it said would help accelerate the delivery of clean power infrastructure projects.^[11]

Whilst countryside campaign groups and charities have supported the move towards clean energy, some have raised concerns about how energy infrastructure projects will affect rural communities. For example, the Countryside Alliance has said the transition to net zero should “not come at the expense of the rural environment or the wellbeing of its communities”.^[12] Echoing similar concerns, the Campaign to Protect Rural England has said “all voices should be heard” during the energy transition.^[13]

3.1 Parliamentary debate

Parliamentarians have considered the impact of energy infrastructure development on rural communities.^[14] During a House of Commons Westminster Hall debate in October 2025, John Lamont (Conservative MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) argued there were various issues with electricity infrastructure in rural communities:

First, the proximity of pylons to people’s homes will impact their quality of life and the visual amenity of their community. Secondly, our countryside will be scarred, damaging tourism and leaving businesses that are already badly suffering out of pocket. It will also damage our environment and natural habitats. Agricultural land will be damaged or lost, impacting farms, reducing the amount of produce made in the [Scottish] Borders and harming our drive for food security. We are not saying that we do not want any energy infrastructure—we already have a lot in the [Scottish] Borders. It is about finding the right solution that protects our rural communities.^[15]

Other concerns raised by MPs included that some communities felt they had no say in energy projects in their area.^[16] Mr Lamont and others called on the government to review how developers engaged with local people and to consider alternative energy options like underground cabling, rooftop solar panels and nuclear power.^[17]

Referring to benefits of energy projects, Torcuil Crichton (Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar) described how community ownership and participation in wind energy infrastructure could ensure local people benefitted economically.^[18]

On behalf of the government, Minister of State for the DESNZ Michael Shanks said the government agreed that nuclear power and rooftop solar panels were important for future energy plans.^[19] Additionally, the minister said it was “absolutely right” for communities to have a voice in infrastructure planning applications. However, he warned that “decades of under-investment” in the grid had meant upgrading and expanding the electricity network was now “not optional”.^[20] The minister went on to describe the government’s view of the size of the problem and need for additional infrastructure:

We need to be honest about the scale of the challenge we face as a country. We cannot meet future electricity demand without building grid infrastructure. I am sorry to say that means it has to be built somewhere. There is no magical third place where we can build infrastructure. We want to work with communities to make sure it is done with them, wherever possible, and so they benefit from it, but ultimately the whole country benefits when we have a functioning grid that delivers cheap, clean, secure electricity to people’s homes and businesses.^[21]

3.2 Government actions

The government has introduced measures to support communities located near energy infrastructure. For example, the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 includes measures for the government to establish an electricity bill discounts scheme for those closest to new or significantly upgraded transmission network infrastructure. For more information, see the government’s ‘Factsheet: Bill discounts for transmission network infrastructure’ (updated 19 September 2025).

Additionally, in May 2025, the government sought views via a working paper on the potential introduction of a mandatory community benefits scheme for developments of low carbon energy infrastructure.^[22] Community benefits could include both monetary and non-monetary contributions to improve the local economy, society and environment.^[23] Community benefits schemes are already delivered on a voluntary basis in some energy sectors such as nuclear, solar, offshore and onshore wind. However, the government said this provision was not consistent and said it wanted to ensure communities felt the “tangible and enduring benefit from their role in creating a low-cost, clean energy system”. The government sought views on the proposal between May and July 2025. On 17 March 2026, the government stated it would publish a response to the working paper “shortly”.^[24] The government response to the working paper had not yet been published at the time of writing.

4. Public attitudes

The DESNZ’s public attitudes tracker (PAT) is an annual survey of adults aged 16 and over in the UK. It measures public awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to DESNZ policies, including energy infrastructure. Headline findings from the latest PAT for winter 2025 included the following:^[25]

• Public awareness of the clean power 2030 target was 83% of respondents. This was unchanged from summer 2025.
• Almost eight in 10 respondents supported the use of renewable energy like wind, solar and biomass (78%), with no statistically significant change since summer 2025. Overall support has declined from 87% at the start of the time series in autumn 2021. Opposition remained stable at 5%.
• On nuclear, 44% of respondents supported using nuclear energy to generate electricity in the UK. This was unchanged since winter 2024. However, over the longer term this support has increased from 37% in winter 2021. 11% opposed the use of nuclear energy in winter 2025, down from 14% in winter 2024.
• 75% of respondents said they were aware of the need to build more electricity network infrastructure, down from 81% in summer 2025 but in line with results from winter 2024 (75%).
• Respondents were asked what information they would find most useful to know about during the planning stage of new electricity network infrastructure in their local area. Information rated as most important included: the impact on electricity bills (48%), the impact on local plant and animal life (40%) and the visual impact on the landscape (40%).

Further information on public attitudes towards energy infrastructure and energy security can be found in the DESNZ’s publication ‘DESNZ public attitudes tracker: Energy infrastructure and energy security, winter 2025, UK’ (12 March 2026).

5. Read more

• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, ‘DESNZ public attitudes tracker: Renewable energy, summer 2025, UK’, 28 October 2025
• House of Lords Library, ‘Great Britain’s electricity grid infrastructure: Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report’, 23 October 2025
• House of Commons Library, ‘Clean power targets’, 14 January 2026
• House of Commons Library, ‘The UK’s plans and progress to reach net zero by 2050’, 13 March 2026

---

Image by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash