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Guidance

Onshore wind: community benefits and engagement best practice

Guidance on community benefits and engagement for onshore wind farm developers, communities living near wind farms, and local authorities in England.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published:
7 October 2014
Last updated:
4 July 2025
Show all updates

  1. Community Benefits Guidance and Resource Kit published. Structural changes made to the community engagement good practice guidance, to remove the community benefits section, now included in the Community Benefits Guidance.

  2. Guidance updated to reflect: - the range of approaches that onshore wind developers and communities are taking to engage with each other - the range of benefits available to communities who host onshore wind developments. The updated guidance does not alter the current planning regime or the principle of community backing that applies to onshore wind developments in England.

  3. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Community benefits guidance for onshore wind in England

PDF, 2.72 MB, 24 pages

Community benefits guidance for onshore wind in England (accessible webpage)

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Community benefits guidance for onshore wind in England: resource kit

PDF, 2.02 MB, 25 pages

Community benefits guidance for onshore wind in England: resource kit (accessible webpage)

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Community engagement from onshore wind developments: good practice guidance for England

PDF, 950 KB, 31 pages

Community engagement from onshore wind developments: good practice guidance for England (accessible webpage)

HTML

Details

The Community Benefits Guidance sets expectations for onshore wind developers when providing community benefits packages to host communities in England. It covers: 

  • the criteria for providing community benefits, including expected funding values
  • best practice principles of community engagement 
  • common models of community benefit available to communities
  • additional support available for communities
  • treatment of community benefits when project circumstances change

The Community Benefits Resource Kit is to help developers and host communities configure long-term relationships that suit local circumstances. It includes information on:

  • case studies
  • community action plans
  • guidelines for applicants
  • community benefits agreements 

The Community Engagement Guidance provides more detail on the best practice principles of:

  • engaging communities early
  • maintaining communication throughout the project
  • ensuring transparency at every stage

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