As the Government moves ahead with its housebuilding and clean energy plans, we’ve learnt those living near newly-installed pylons will receive a discount on their energy bills.
Under the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the Government is offering those living within 500 metres of new pylons, electricity bill discounts of up to £2,500 over 10 years - £250 a year.
Alongside money off bills, communities hosting transmission infrastructure could also see funding for projects like sports clubs, educational programmes, or leisure facilities. The new community funds guidance means communities could get £200,000 worth of funding per km of overhead electricity cable in their area, and £530,000 per substation.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone’s thrilled by the offer. In places like Amber Valley, Derbyshire, where a major new power line could cut through the countryside, many locals have expressed their displeasure, calling it a ‘joke’, as the pylons will spoil the landscape.
What has perhaps also been overlooked in the discussion of the £250 discount is that living near a pylon can negatively impact your property’s value. If your house backs onto a towering pylon, that £2,500 saving may not be enough to offset the potential drop in your home’s value.
For some mortgage lenders, this can be a serious issue. While lenders may not have specific policies regarding pylons, it’s the surveyor’s responsibility to highlight anything that might impact saleability.
If you’ve got a lovely home, but at the end of your garden is a pylon, and all you can hear is electrical crackling - or a constant hum while you try to enjoy a cup of tea in the garden - it’s certainly not helping your property’s value, or its saleability.
There’s also the concern about Electro Magnetic Fields (EMFs) and the potential health risks of living close to pylons. Most people, if given the choice, would prefer not to live near to one and the closer your home is to the pylon, the more likely it is to negatively affect the value of the property.
Research from the Centre for Economic Performance in 2023 - Are Friends Electric? Valuing the Social Costs of Power Lines Using House Prices - found that houses within 300 metres of new pylons sell for an average of 10% less than those more than 1.5km away. The impact fades with distance but can still be noticeable up to about 1.2km away. On average, homes within 1.2km of pylons sell for around 3.6% less compared to properties further away, the report shows.
Striking the right balance
It’s a reminder that while the drive for clean energy and 1.5 million new homes will bring benefits, there will inevitably be those who lose out.
The unfortunate reality is that if we’re serious about electrifying the grid and phasing out gas, we’ll either need more pylons or we’ll have to dig up roads to lay cables underground, as the demand for electricity is only set to rise.
Building homes near electricity pylons has always sparked debate, largely due to the potential health risks. In the past there have been calls for a ban on new homes and schools being built within 60 metres of high-voltage power lines.
If Labour is to succeed in building its 1.5 million homes however, along with the necessary infrastructure to support clean energy, we will inevitably see more pylons pop up.
The latest Housing Pipeline Report from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) shows that to hit the Government’s target of 370,000 new homes per year, planning approvals need to rise by 53%.
In 2024, just 242,610 units received planning permission - the lowest total for any calendar year since 2014. That’s a 2% drop from 2023 and a 26% decrease from the 2019 peak, representing a loss of over 85,000 approvals.
The number of approved sites in 2024 also hit a record low, with just 9,776 projects given the green light - the smallest total since HBF began reporting in 2006.
While the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a step in the right direction to address this, balancing growth with its impact on communities will be no easy task.
