Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal, asks Government for extra oversight of energy giants as residents left 'devastated'

A Suffolk MP has asked for extra oversight of energy giants as residents have been left 'devastated' by major projects.

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, MP for Suffolk Coastal, led a Westminster Hall debate this morning calling out the lack of coordination for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) on the coast.

She warned the Government residents in her constituency were being 'let down' by major energy projects and left 'devastated' by their cumulative impacts.

Ms Riddell-Carpenter said: "Too often, decisions are made in silos, with little consideration of how one project affects another or what it means for the people and places asked to host them.

"That’s not a strategy, and it’s not good enough."

Part of the problem, she argued, was a 'void' in leadership left by the Conservative Government and taken up by the energy developers, creating a 'series of uncoordinated wack-a-mole projects'.

"The UK has let developers lead the conversation and the strategy," she said, "and what we’ve ended up with are a mismatch of proposals, in the wrong place, with no coordination and no desire to think about better alternatives."

Ms Riddell-Carpenter's comments follow an amendment she tabled to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently being debated in the House of Lords, making it a legal requirement for developers to coordinate their work.

This is meant to protect recognised landscapes which 'underpin local economies'.

A further amendment was tabled by the MP, requiring underground cables on agricultural land to be buried at a minimum depth of 1.8 metres to avoid the land being ineligible for farming.

She said: "Getting this right now means better protections for our natural environment, better safeguards for our local communities, and leaving a lasting legacy for the next generation."

Addressing these concerns, Michael Shanks, the energy minister, said new projects were 'critical', but agreed more work needed to be done.

He said: "We must, as a country, recognise that in order for us to deliver on the outcomes we want as a Government, and to improve the lives of people, we will have to build infrastructure across the country.

"We want to do that in partnership with communities, and make sure that we do it as well-planned and as strategically as possible, to make sure that communities that host this infrastructure genuinely benefit from it."