SSE has welcomed new measures announced by the Government to give communities the opportunity to engage earlier and more effecitvely with proposed wind farm developments.
The measures will also help maintain a stable investment framework and deliver a consistently high level of financial benefit to communities that host wind farms.
Director for Onshore Renewables at SSE, Colin Nicol, said: “We are strongly committed to ensuring that communities are proactively consulted when we propose new onshore wind developments and that they should benefit directly.
"We have a well-established policy for investing in local communities, which we believe has raised the bar in terms of the level of investments that communities can expect.
“Onshore wind farms also bring a wide range of other benefits to local communities that host them, through the creation of jobs, local business opportunities and improvements to local roads and infrastructure.”
The Government is expecting the industry to provide community investment funds equivalent to £5,000 per MW for all new onshore wind projects in England, something SSE has done since January 2012.
In the last 10 years SSE has provided more than £10million pounds of community benefit through its wind farm funds and supported more than 1,000 community projects. This financial year alone, SSE has set aside over £3.5million for community funds.
SSE undertakes full pre-application consultation with communities as standard practice for all of its new onshore wind developments, not just those covered by the national infrastructure planning framework, and supports the move to make this compulsory.
It will fully consider the detail of new planning guidance as it emerges and seek to implement best practice recommendations.