Part one: An introduction to the SALEP resource suite

Decarbonising the UK’s energy grid is central to securing greater energy security and achieving its net zero ambitions. Indeed, the government’s goal for Great Britain is that clean sources will produce as least as much power as Great Britain consumes by 2030 (NESO, 2025). Beyond this, the UK’s legally-binding ‘net zero by 2050’ target remains.

Meeting these targets is partly a technical challenge. It requires identifying and harnessing the UK’s renewable energy sources, huge investments in renewable energy projects and the grid, and strategies for coordinating and targeting this investment for maximum effect. Across the UK, nationally and locally, new institutions, initiatives and energy plans are coming into place that set out pathways and actions to achieve a net zero energy system. The energy policy landscape is changing rapidly at different levels and across the UK nations.

Local authority town planners have a crucial role to play in this transition. Indeed, it is the local level at which practical challenges concerning delivery, infrastructure and competing development priorities become ‘real’. The delivery of energy infrastructure has to be considered in the context of the wider built environment and sometimes conflicting social, environmental and economic needs. Town planning enables this.

But delivery is also a social and political challenge, and town planners are at its frontline. It is through effective engagement during planning that communities can genuinely shape the way their places develop, including in relation to renewable energy projects.

Conversely, if new renewable projects happen ‘to’ communities, rather than with them, resentment and opposition may grow. There are already concerning signs that a backlash against renewable energy projects is underway (The Guardian, 2025).

Despite the prize, and despite the risks, there is often a disconnect between town planning and energy planning, particularly at the local level.

To some extent this is because of the current pace of policy change, but it is also because local planning authorities face acute resourcing challenges. A quarter of UK planners left the public sector between 2013 and 2020 (RTPI, 2023), and 45% of planning departments in English local authorities reported a skills gap in energy and climate change (MHCLG, 2025). 

This disconnect also has long-term roots. Much of the UK’s energy grid was built in the post-war period to support fossil fuels. It focused on large, single, points of generation at power stations. While the country’s reliance on fossil fuels continued, there was little need to fundamentally alter the grid. But because renewable generation tends to happen in a dispersed way, at multiple smaller points across the grid, the location of energy infrastructure developments has become an important question. Community engagement and competing land uses are, in many ways, now much more important issues for energy planning than they have been for a very long time.

To deliver these projects with local support and in ways that generate environmental and social benefits, good town planning is essential. Conversely, without integration with, and guidance for, town planning, local decision makers often find there is a disconnect between local development plans and their decarbonisation ambitions.

The prize for integrating town planning and energy planning is huge, but so too are the risks of missed opportunities if it is not done. This suite of resources aims to help local planners and other decision makers bridge the gap between energy planning and town planning.

Though it may be valuable to anyone interested in understanding more about how town planning and energy planning interact across the UK, this suite of resources focuses on providing:

• Guidance for energy planners (and other stakeholders) on planning processes;
• Guidance for town planners on policy and site considerations for different energy technologies; and
• Recommendations to central government and local government on how energy planning and town planning can be better aligned at the local level.

Geographically, this suite covers all four UK nations. It is therefore important to state from the onset that while the UK Government sets the overall policy framework for energy at the UK level (including the ‘net zero by 2050 target), planning is the responsibility of the devolved administrations. It is therefore essential to appreciate the different challenges each nation faces while sharing best practices across the UK.

1. This introduction and high-level summary of the RTPI’s recommendations to government on joining-up energy planning and town planning.

2. An overview of energy-related policy and public bodies, and consenting (planning) regimes, across the UK.
3. An overview of the major siting constraints and considerations for different types of renewable energy projects in the UK, with recommendations for how the governments can improve this aspect of energy infrastructure planning.

4. A series of case studies that draw out key challenges and insights related to integrating energy planning and town planning at the local level:
   1. Community-led energy planning in Oldham.
   2. The long-term integration of energy planning and town planning in Bristol.
   3. Data sharing, digital tools and involving town planners in the Local Area Energy Plans process in Leicestershire.
   4. Prioritising and reducing risks associated with investing in energy projects in Belfast.
   5. The governance challenges associated with integrating energy planning into town planning approaches in Denbighshire.
   6. The benefits of ensuring town planners are involved early in the energy planning process, in Perth and Kinross.

5. Our analysis and recommendations on how emerging local energy plans can be better integrated with town planning across the UK. This builds on the siting constraints, case study resources and overarching analysis. It focuses on Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs) across the UK, and in Scotland also includes reference to Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEESs).

Challenge 1: Planners and energy teams often work in isolation, leading to missed opportunities for integrating energy and town planning.

Recommendation 1: Local authorities should establish formal governance structures to integrate town planning and energy teams. This could include:

• Creating cross-departmental working groups or steering committees; and
• Embedding energy planning discussions in local plan development cycles.

Challenge 2: Energy plans procured from external consultants often lack consistency in data outputs, miss upskilling opportunities for local authority teams, and overlook meaningful community involvement.

Recommendation 2: When commissioning energy planning processes, local authorities should set clear contractual expectations with consultants regarding:

• The specific types of analysis outputs required;
• Data-sharing protocols to enable long-term use by local authorities;
• Training and knowledge transfer for local authority staff to enhance internal capacity; and
• Defined community engagement processes to ensure public input is incorporated.