What Scottish Local Government Reorganisation could mean for renewable energy projects

The Scottish Government is planning on streamlining Scotland’s 32 councils into between 6 and 10 regional authorities, with a new strengthened community council tier below them.

The proposals are at an early stage, and there is not yet an implementation timetable, and the geographical boundaries, powers and precise responsibilities of the proposed authorities remain to be determined.

Proposed regional, community and island authorities

The current system of local government in Scotland was introduced in 1996 and comprises 32 local authorities, with community councils below them.  

The proposed changes are for two tiers of local government on the Scottish mainland, but with only one set of elected representatives, all of whom will serve on two councils simultaneously. LGR will not include further stakeholders to engage with on projects, instead giving multiple ‘hats’ to the same councillors.

The Scottish Government's proposal is for 6–10 strategic regional authorities concentrating on strategic decision-making, alongside 120–160 community authorities focused on decisions closer to individual towns, and villages. At present there are 1,369 community council areas in Scotland, so moving to fewer than 200 will be a big cut and will mean that the new community authorities will cover a much larger area than existing councils do.

Community authorities will have powers concerning local planning decisions, licensing, town centre redevelopment, and the historic environment. The regional authorities would have an enhanced role in areas including regional economic development, business support, housing, strategic planning and transport. The precise allocation of planning powers has not yet been decided.

There will be separate arrangements for the islands, as is usually the case with Scottish LGR. On Argyll and Bute, Orkney, and the Western Isles, the proposals are for a single council model that will also incorporate the present role of local health boards rather than multiple tiers of governance.

Implications for wind and solar projects

It seems most likely that granting planning to renewable energy projects that currently would go through a Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) application to the local authority would be assessed by the new regional authority rather than the community authority.

If strategic planning and other infrastructure-related functions are transferred to regional authorities, developers could increasingly have to engage at a larger geographical level on issues such as spatial planning, economic development, infrastructure and cumulative development. At the same time, the creation of stronger community authorities could increase the importance of engagement at the individual town, village or neighbourhood level, even if the community authority has no say in the planning outcome, the councillors on both authorities will be the same people.

Alongside LGR, the Scottish Government has also proposed raising the threshold at which onshore generation is considered by local authorities from 50MW. Raising this threshold and giving greater control of wind and solar applications to local authorities could come alongside making authorities larger.

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