LONDON — The U.K. government is looking at plans which would effectively wipe out electricity bills for most households living near new electricity pylons.
It is one policy currently being considered in Whitehall, as politicians and officials try to defuse a fierce local backlash against proposals for building hundreds of miles of new pylons across rural parts of the country.
The anger has spooked some members of parliament on Labour’s backbenches and threatens to undermine Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plans to radically overhaul the U.K. energy system by 2030, one of his five central “missions” for government.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and his top officials have promised to deliver a package of “community benefits” for households in the path of the new infrastructure, which includes vast new solar and wind farms as well as transmission lines.
