The Renewable Energy Association is dismissing calls from Tory backbenchers to make it easier to challenge planning permission for onshore wind farms, claiming this will put a “greater premium” on renewables.

At the end of last month more than 100 MPs from the Tory backbenches and handful from other parties sent a letter to the Prime Minister, expressing fears the planning system made it hard for local people to “defeat unwanted wind farm proposals”.

The REA says this would put a higher price on green power its CEOGaynor Hartnell said: “If achieving planning permission becomes ever harder, we will pay a greater premium for our renewables. We need to develop a diverse portfolio of wind projects; from the larger wind farms in those landscapes which can accommodate them, to smaller arrays of large turbines in industrial locations – and ideally community-owned and initiated ventures too.”