An Ex-Cabinet minister has launched a bid to relax the current rules on building new onshore wind farms.

Former Levelling Up Secretary under Liz Truss’s administration, Simon Clarke, tabled an amendment to the government’s Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

The proposal suggests that local planning authorities are permitted to grant onshore wind applications “for the purposes of installing new sites not previously used for generating wind energy and repowering existing onshore wind installations”.

The move by Simon Clarke could potentially overturn the ban on new onshore wind developments, which the Prime Minister supports.

Mr Clarke told the Times: “If we are going to have some anti-growth amendments on the bill, we might as well have some pro-growth ones too.”

The Conservative MP said: “We have the chance to do something here which is genuinely sensible and entirely in the government’s gift.”

Last week, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit published a survey which suggested that MPs didn’t have a clear view of what the voters in their constituencies want regarding new onshore wind.