The publication of DECC’s Guidance on Community Benefit and Community Engagement for England is a timely moment to revisit the approach industry and Government have taken to Community Benefits in Wales and why our approach is somewhat different to that in England (or Scotland and Northern Ireland).
In June 2013 the Onshore wind industry in Wales committed to the Welsh Government that we would work in partnership with Government to ensure long term and positive benefits from the onshore wind industry’s presence in Wales. Crucially, the declaration signed by a majority of the developers active in Wales did not commit to a minimum £ per MW figure for community benefit in Wales.
This was for a number of reasons. Firstly, we agreed with the First Minister that a minimum figure might end up being a soft cap on community developments, and with proposed projects in Wales already offering more than £5,000 per MW to their host communities we thought this would be short sighted. Secondly, the industry and Government agreed that there might be other means than cash to provide long term benefits to the host communities for wind farms, whether this be through discounted electricity schemes, share offers or other schemes developers agree with communities. We wanted to offer communities and developers freedom and flexibility to innovate and develop amazing community benefit schemes.
Industry in Wales have also committed to populating the Welsh Register of Community Benefits, this was published in April 2014, well ahead of the publication of DECC’s guidance, and is available to view here: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/energy/renewable/wind/register/?lang=en