*Oliver Wright, Policy Editor, October 7 2022, The Times*
Residents living near proposed fracking sites could be offered payments of between £500 and £1,000 to give their “consent” to gas wells being drilled near their homes under plans being drawn up by ministers.
To kickstart the industry and minimise local opposition, the government is examining proposals to provide financial inducements to households living in a set radius around planned sites.
If a majority of residents in the area agreed to the payments, the gas well would be considered to have been given “local consent” — the test which the government has set out for wells to be approved.
This could then circumvent the planning process and allow projects to go ahead if they met environmental criteria which would be assessed by local planning inspectors rather than having to be approved by council planning committees.
The payments would still be made to all residents in the area — even if they had opposed the development.
Industry sources said that the geographical spread for the payments would depend on how densely populated an area was. However, it would be designed to compensate those directly affected by the disruption caused by construction.
Ministers are also considering setting up a system of “royalty” payments to residents living close to new fracking sites. This would be set at between 1 per cent and 6 per cent of total revenues of gas produced from the sites and would either be made as a cash payment or money off energy bills.
The industry claims that this could be worth between £4 million and £400 million per site over 20 years depending on the price of gas and productivity of wells.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, is expected to announce the plans this month after being criticised by Conservative MPs for failing to define what the government meant when it said fracking would go ahead only with “local consent”.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Tory party conference last week he suggested that oil and gas companies could “go around, door to door, as politicians do at elections and ask people if they would consent. Then they have to go around to an identifiable community and if they get 50 per cent plus one in favour then they should be able to go ahead.”
At the time he made no mention of potential payments to encourage people to support the projects.
It is understood that a payment scheme, which would be funded by the industry, could provide a model for other major infrastructure projects such as onshore wind that are also locally contentious.
Any move to exclude local planning committees will prove controversial. Last year, ministers were forced to backtrack on plans to relax wider planning rules that would also have curtailed the role of local councils in the face of widespread opposition from Tory MPs.
A senior government source said that a system of payments could help “unlock” development by compensating people for short-term disruption. “If you are going to have lorries and construction work right by your house then it is very obvious why local people are going to be opposed to that,” they said. “But if you can say to them that they are going to be compensated from that disruption and then get regular payment when those wells are productive then that can change people’s perception on whether they will support the project or not.”
Charles McAllister, director at UK Onshore Oil and Gas, an industry body, said UK shale gas offered “economic, environmental and geopolitical benefits over a continued reliance on imports”. He said fracking for shale domestically would produce significantly fewer carbon emissions than relying on liquid natural gas imports from abroad as well as increasing energy security.
“UK shale gas companies have committed to providing proceeds from operations to local communities at the exploration stage and production stage of development,” he said. “Not only can shale gas deliver more energy per acre than most other energy technologies, but we can deliver more money to communities too.
“The amount of capital that can be injected into local communities in the north of England from shale gas development could be truly transformational. A continued reliance on imported gas will continue to offer precisely zero in community benefits, as well as tax revenue, business rates and employment opportunities.”
**‘I’d like to see them frack next to Truss’s house’**
Residents living next to the Preston New Road fracking site say the government’s proposed strategy of offering cash incentives is like “giving someone £10 in exchange for smashing up their car with a hammer” (Tom Ball writes).
The prospect of renewed fracking operations on the Fylde coast in Lancashire was raised following the government’s announcement that it intended to lift the 2019 ban on the practice.
Locals in Little Plumpton, a hamlet adjacent to the Preston New Road site, said that government cash incentives of up to £1,000 were meaningless.
“If they start fracking again, then no one will want to buy these properties,” said Susan Holliday, 61, a retired IT manager who is part of the Preston New Road Action Group. “A few thousand pounds will be little consolation. But the problem is that in this difficult economic climate, people may feel that they have to take the money. It’s no indication of support though.”
Her husband Chris, 60, said that when fracking had set off earthquakes in the area, the whole house had shaken, sending pots and pans flying. The house is 500m from the entrance of the site, which is adorned with yellow ribbons hung by Frack Free Lancs protesters.
“It’s very worrying to think about the damage it does to the infrastructure of a house,” he said. “You can try and buy someone’s support but it’s essentially like giving someone £10 in exchange for smashing up their car with a hammer. You’d just rather they didn’t do it in the first place.”
Cuadrilla began fracking work at Preston New Road in 2018. It drilled two horizontal shale gas wells at the site, pledging that it could adhere to limits on seismic activity, only to swiftly breach them and lobby for them to be increased.
A 2.9-magnitude tremor in August 2019 was widely felt in the area and prompted a moratorium on fracking in November that year.
Alan Donnelly, 73, who ran a window-making business before retiring, said that he was not necessarily opposed to fracking in the area, but did not want it if it created earthquakes that shook his house.
“When [the 2.9-magnitude quake] struck, you could literally see the corner of my house swaying from side to side,” said Donnelly, who has lived in his home for 28 years. “But the government’s not offering to pay the money to rebuild my house if it falls down, are they? What I’d like to see is them to start fracking next to Liz Truss’s house and see what she says.”
Alan Fairhurst, 64, a retired graphic reproducer, said the earthquake had left a large crack in the wall of his barn. “If they gave us all £1 million then maybe it could incentivise people to drop their opposition, but the sums they are talking about are insignificant,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with fracking per se. In the US it works very well because they do it on remote sites. But it simply isn’t feasible here in a densely populated area where people will be affected.”
Ah the old Alaska trick. Not sure if it’ll work as well in a smaller landmass where people actually have roots.
That little? They should ask for a percentage of the gross income.
Or, better yet, just don’t track at all.
Literally nobody wants fracking whether they live near a site; a proposed site or just a site. We’d much rather investment in other means of energy production. The sooner these absolute clownshoes catch on the better.
That won’t cover the devaluation of your property though. Especially if the insurance companies catch wind of any tremors.
£1,000? That’s it? That’s not even going to touch the side of the loss of value of their homes due to now being next to a fracking site.
How about start at £10,000 and see if you get any takers.
Is that up to £1,000.00 per annum, £1,000.00 per property, £1,000.00 shared with the other households.
Let’s start a GoFundMe to pay them all 2 grand to tell the frackers to fuck off!
As if people in Dunsfold will even bother responding ‘No’ for that.
“Hey plebs, we’re going to completely ruin your life, but here’s some crumbs.”
Why not a share in the local operation and all related profits?
Lets play a game who can find out which MP’s have shares/relationships with the companies who are going to be doing it
A one off payment of £1000 is a joke, it will probably knock off a few % to house value which will be well over that.
I suppose they are going down the route of make everyone Starve so the £1000 will get them through a few months
That’s like offering you ten pence to nick 60 quid out your wallet
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Article contents:
*Oliver Wright, Policy Editor, October 7 2022, The Times*
Residents living near proposed fracking sites could be offered payments of between £500 and £1,000 to give their “consent” to gas wells being drilled near their homes under plans being drawn up by ministers.
To kickstart the industry and minimise local opposition, the government is examining proposals to provide financial inducements to households living in a set radius around planned sites.
If a majority of residents in the area agreed to the payments, the gas well would be considered to have been given “local consent” — the test which the government has set out for wells to be approved.
This could then circumvent the planning process and allow projects to go ahead if they met environmental criteria which would be assessed by local planning inspectors rather than having to be approved by council planning committees.
The payments would still be made to all residents in the area — even if they had opposed the development.
Industry sources said that the geographical spread for the payments would depend on how densely populated an area was. However, it would be designed to compensate those directly affected by the disruption caused by construction.
Ministers are also considering setting up a system of “royalty” payments to residents living close to new fracking sites. This would be set at between 1 per cent and 6 per cent of total revenues of gas produced from the sites and would either be made as a cash payment or money off energy bills.
The industry claims that this could be worth between £4 million and £400 million per site over 20 years depending on the price of gas and productivity of wells.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, is expected to announce the plans this month after being criticised by Conservative MPs for failing to define what the government meant when it said fracking would go ahead only with “local consent”.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Tory party conference last week he suggested that oil and gas companies could “go around, door to door, as politicians do at elections and ask people if they would consent. Then they have to go around to an identifiable community and if they get 50 per cent plus one in favour then they should be able to go ahead.”
At the time he made no mention of potential payments to encourage people to support the projects.
It is understood that a payment scheme, which would be funded by the industry, could provide a model for other major infrastructure projects such as onshore wind that are also locally contentious.
Any move to exclude local planning committees will prove controversial. Last year, ministers were forced to backtrack on plans to relax wider planning rules that would also have curtailed the role of local councils in the face of widespread opposition from Tory MPs.
A senior government source said that a system of payments could help “unlock” development by compensating people for short-term disruption. “If you are going to have lorries and construction work right by your house then it is very obvious why local people are going to be opposed to that,” they said. “But if you can say to them that they are going to be compensated from that disruption and then get regular payment when those wells are productive then that can change people’s perception on whether they will support the project or not.”
Charles McAllister, director at UK Onshore Oil and Gas, an industry body, said UK shale gas offered “economic, environmental and geopolitical benefits over a continued reliance on imports”. He said fracking for shale domestically would produce significantly fewer carbon emissions than relying on liquid natural gas imports from abroad as well as increasing energy security.
“UK shale gas companies have committed to providing proceeds from operations to local communities at the exploration stage and production stage of development,” he said. “Not only can shale gas deliver more energy per acre than most other energy technologies, but we can deliver more money to communities too.
“The amount of capital that can be injected into local communities in the north of England from shale gas development could be truly transformational. A continued reliance on imported gas will continue to offer precisely zero in community benefits, as well as tax revenue, business rates and employment opportunities.”
**‘I’d like to see them frack next to Truss’s house’**
Residents living next to the Preston New Road fracking site say the government’s proposed strategy of offering cash incentives is like “giving someone £10 in exchange for smashing up their car with a hammer” (Tom Ball writes).
The prospect of renewed fracking operations on the Fylde coast in Lancashire was raised following the government’s announcement that it intended to lift the 2019 ban on the practice.
Locals in Little Plumpton, a hamlet adjacent to the Preston New Road site, said that government cash incentives of up to £1,000 were meaningless.
“If they start fracking again, then no one will want to buy these properties,” said Susan Holliday, 61, a retired IT manager who is part of the Preston New Road Action Group. “A few thousand pounds will be little consolation. But the problem is that in this difficult economic climate, people may feel that they have to take the money. It’s no indication of support though.”
Her husband Chris, 60, said that when fracking had set off earthquakes in the area, the whole house had shaken, sending pots and pans flying. The house is 500m from the entrance of the site, which is adorned with yellow ribbons hung by Frack Free Lancs protesters.
“It’s very worrying to think about the damage it does to the infrastructure of a house,” he said. “You can try and buy someone’s support but it’s essentially like giving someone £10 in exchange for smashing up their car with a hammer. You’d just rather they didn’t do it in the first place.”
Cuadrilla began fracking work at Preston New Road in 2018. It drilled two horizontal shale gas wells at the site, pledging that it could adhere to limits on seismic activity, only to swiftly breach them and lobby for them to be increased.
A 2.9-magnitude tremor in August 2019 was widely felt in the area and prompted a moratorium on fracking in November that year.
Alan Donnelly, 73, who ran a window-making business before retiring, said that he was not necessarily opposed to fracking in the area, but did not want it if it created earthquakes that shook his house.
“When [the 2.9-magnitude quake] struck, you could literally see the corner of my house swaying from side to side,” said Donnelly, who has lived in his home for 28 years. “But the government’s not offering to pay the money to rebuild my house if it falls down, are they? What I’d like to see is them to start fracking next to Liz Truss’s house and see what she says.”
Alan Fairhurst, 64, a retired graphic reproducer, said the earthquake had left a large crack in the wall of his barn. “If they gave us all £1 million then maybe it could incentivise people to drop their opposition, but the sums they are talking about are insignificant,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with fracking per se. In the US it works very well because they do it on remote sites. But it simply isn’t feasible here in a densely populated area where people will be affected.”
Ah the old Alaska trick. Not sure if it’ll work as well in a smaller landmass where people actually have roots.
That little? They should ask for a percentage of the gross income.
Or, better yet, just don’t track at all.
Literally nobody wants fracking whether they live near a site; a proposed site or just a site. We’d much rather investment in other means of energy production. The sooner these absolute clownshoes catch on the better.
That won’t cover the devaluation of your property though. Especially if the insurance companies catch wind of any tremors.
£1,000? That’s it? That’s not even going to touch the side of the loss of value of their homes due to now being next to a fracking site.
How about start at £10,000 and see if you get any takers.
Is that up to £1,000.00 per annum, £1,000.00 per property, £1,000.00 shared with the other households.
Let’s start a GoFundMe to pay them all 2 grand to tell the frackers to fuck off!
As if people in Dunsfold will even bother responding ‘No’ for that.
“Hey plebs, we’re going to completely ruin your life, but here’s some crumbs.”
Why not a share in the local operation and all related profits?
Lets play a game who can find out which MP’s have shares/relationships with the companies who are going to be doing it
A one off payment of £1000 is a joke, it will probably knock off a few % to house value which will be well over that.
I suppose they are going down the route of make everyone Starve so the £1000 will get them through a few months
That’s like offering you ten pence to nick 60 quid out your wallet