Business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has refused planning consent for a controversial electricity interconnector between the UK and France.
The decision follows stiff local resistance to the Aquind project, which would see a 2GW high voltage direct current cable come ashore at Eastney beach in Portsmouth before running through the city and out to a substation in Lovedean on the edge of the South Downs National Park.
The decision letter highlighted opposition from a number of MPs, including Penny Mordaunt and Stephen Morgan, the Conservative and Labour representatives for Portsmouth North and South respectively, who both submitted petitions objecting to the development to the secretary of state.
The letter noted a number of concerns identified by the Examining Authority in its report such as harm to several historical monuments, disruptions to tourism, sport pitches and an annual festival, and delays to a coastal defence scheme.
Kwarteng’s decision goes against the recommendations of the Examining Authority, which said these “significant adverse effects… do not outweigh the national benefits that would be gained from the proposed development in terms of its contribution to a secure, diverse and affordable energy supply, greater levels of electricity systems interconnection, and further accommodation of decarbonised electricity generation.”
The business and energy secretary criticised the authority for its “failure to adequately consider” alternative connections points for the cable that would avoid the need for it to pass through a built-up area, in particular, a substation at Mannington near Bournemouth, which Aquind initially identified as an option but eventually dismissed.
The letter acknowledged that this alternative may have proven impractical upon further investigation but said “in the absence of sufficient evidence on this matter, the secretary of state cannot grant consent for the Aquind interconnector project taking into account the adverse effects identified by the Examining Authority and the possibility that a connection point at Mannington substation might potentially have resulted in less adverse impact.”
The project has also courted controversy due to the connections between Conservative party and Aquind’s owners, Alexander Termeko and Viktor Fedotov, both former oil company executives in Russia and reportedly donors.
Labour’s shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead previously told the House of Commons that Aquind had given “huge” donations to the party and “a number of its MPs” totalling £1.1 million and described the Aquind project as a “seedy enterprise”.
Former energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she could not participate in any matter relating to the project because her local constituency party in Northumberland had received a donation from Temerko. Alok Sharma also stepped aside from the decision when he was business and energy secretary after it emerged that he had sat with Termeko at a Conservative fund-raising dinner.
Fedotov was additionally alleged to have been involved in an embezzlement scheme in Russia as part of the Panama Papers investigation by the BBC and the Guardian, accusations which he denied.
Responding to Kwarteng’s decision to refuse Aquind’s application for a development consent order, Mordaunt, who was appointed as minister for trade policy in September, said: “We won. Thank you to everyone who campaigned against Aquind and this ridiculous proposal that would have damaged our city and damaged the country.”
Morgan said in a statement: “The government have finally seen sense and stopped the disastrous Aquind project. This a victory for the people of Portsmouth over years of uncertainty and Tory cronyism.”
He said: “I continue to raise questions about how Conservative ministers came so close to allowing party donors facing corruption allegations to control a national infrastructure project.”
A spokesperson for Aquind expressed disappointed at the refusal given the government’s support for the development of new interconnectors and said the company is considering seeking a judicial review of the decision: “We draw attention to the recommendation by the apolitical, independent Examining Authority that found strongly in favour of Aquind interconnector.”
“We disagree with the decision of the secretary of state, and the rationale behind it. We are considering the decision, the grounds for the refusal, and a potential legal challenge. We believe our application for a development consent order to be accurate and robust, and it has met all the requirements.
They continued: “With the ability to transmit up to 5% of Great Britain’s annual electricity consumption – enough to power nearly 5 million British homes – Aquind interconnector will help reduce the impact of volatile gas and coal prices, which have caused electricity bills to increase this autumn and winter.”