Large Energy Projects and Community Benefits Agreements - Some experience from the UK

Large projects are often controversial projects, with wide ranging implications for host localities. Energy projects, including windfarms, nuclear power stations, and the more recent cases of fracking and nuclear waste geological disposal, provide particularly high profile cases. In response to concern there has been the emergence of a whole family of new procedures, processes and methods for their assessment and management, including the advent of Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs). This article examines some of the critical issues around the increasing use of such agreements, including: their justification, relationship to the planning process, scale of benefits (which can be very large), types of benefits, and their management and distribution. The focus is on emerging UK practice in relation to energy projects, but there will also be reference to some relevant practice elsewhere—especially in the EU and North America.