Planning Bill
12:00 pm
Phil Jones: Yes, if it was in a policy statement about power stations it would definitely help. I apologise if it is stating the obvious, but to companies like ours, the fact that there has been an announcement today that a certain type of technology will be encouraged is neither here nor there. It could be any type of technology that requires a connection; we would still have to put the same kind of assets in place, it just depends on its capacity.
Location is definitely a key issue and so is proximity to other development. For example, it makes a big difference to us how close is it to where people live and how close it will be to the users of the network. If you are talking about a national policy statement for something other than the stations themselves—perhaps for the kind of assets that we put in the ground—more specific guidance would be, “We do not like it in these circumstances, but do under those.” Basically, changing the decision of the planner would be the acid test, and I think that is what to look out for.