Households will be offered up to £1,000 to approve provisional fracking in their area under a plan backed by Government ministers to secure local consent.
The proposal being floated is for companies that want to drill for shale gas to go door-to-door to convince residents to green-light the move.
Cash incentives could be offered, with exploratory drilling allowed to go ahead if more than 50 per cent of households in the local vicinity give their approval.
Should shale gas be found and removal is possible, companies would then offer those who own the land under which fracking takes place royalties to share in the proceeds.
The two-step idea is being explored in Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which oversees the policy area.
Isnt this an old idea Politics and Space 2020
In January 2013, Nick Boles, the government minister for Planning, drew on a recent report by the think-tank he had previously led, Policy Exchange, to propose what he described as a direct ‘bribe’ (which he wanted to call the ‘Boles Bung’) to communities who took advantage of new powers to draw up statutory neighbourhood plans. In exchange for designating higher levels of housebuilding in such plans, neighbourhood groups would be offered direct control of up to 25% of planning gain levies collected from developers.
Eighty-four per cent of respondents stated that a financialpayment would not make them less likely to oppose housing development. Only 6% of households stated that a payment would encourage them to be less opposed to housing development. Of those, the majority estimated £4000 or more would be required to alter their behaviour.
4k per household affected would kill viability of any scheme, for only a marginal impact on pubic opppsition. Another half baked Poicy Exchange idea.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 