THE STORY SO FAR

FACT CHECK: NG VS REALITY

July 2026
The Examination of the Norwich to Tilbury proposal is now under way and runs for six months until August 10th 2026. We have had three weeks of hearings. All submissions are here. We have submitted substantial evidence packs at each of the many deadlines.

Watch out for National Grid’s premature ‘enabling’ planning applications coming soon.  They’ re asking the local planning authorities for permission to carry out some works in advance of receiving consent for the project as a whole!  This means road closures, tree and hedgerow loss etc which may not ever be needed. Please ask your Parish Council and councillor to ask your Council to insist up on an Environmental Impact Statement and Grampian conditions.

Our legal team and consultants have been invaluable representing us in person and in writing. We would really appreciate donations to pay for their time – they’re doing some incredible work presenting evidence against the Norwich to Tilbury project. All updates and information are on the Planning Inspectorate website.  We are not updating this website as often at the moment, as we’re focused on meeting the regular series of deadlines during the Examination.   For updates, sign up for emails here.

Previously…

We’ve written again to the government, this time to Michael Shanks, MP, the Minister for Energy.  The letter is here.

National Grid’s ‘targeted‘ consultations finished early spring and we submitted our own evidence.  They involved tweaks to an unwanted proposal and ignored the better alternatives everyone has asked for.  Note – in Lincolnshire National Grid has chosen HVDC undergrounding/subsea over pylons because the lifetime costs are lower, it’s less risky and will be quicker.   Note, too that National Grid’s own website has a video which states that coordination offshore is cheaper and better than the current approach.

We are in a lobbying phase between the Statutory Consultation and the submission of the Development Consent Order to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) late next year.   Government may try to find a way to bring this submission forward.    We’re sharing our Leaders not Laggards report far and wide.  In the new year we anticipate that there will be a consultation on the new Planning & Infrastructure Bill, which we will respond to and talk to MPs about.

National Grid ET’s third and final consultation finished on 26 July.  Check our Reports page for all of our submissions and legal opinion.

For NG’s 2024 interactive map of the Norwich to Tilbury project, click here.

In March, National Grid ESO has published its review of East Anglian transmission: click here to read it.    Our initial reaction is as follows:

Review of the East Anglian grid brings more problems than it solves.

The voluntary nature of the Government’s offshore coordination scheme (OCSS) resulted in a far too narrow review.  We see none of the cost or environmental benefits of integration that we would see from a fully coordinated offshore system, which would reduce the amount of infrastructure needed.  In fact, the OCSS leads to even more infrastructure on land, with potential for additional pylons between Friston, in Suffolk, and Tilbury, in Essex.

Moreover, the existing, disused infrastructure at Bradwell-on-Sea is being ignored in favour of destructive, new green field infrastructure.

And we have seen no evidence that the latest technology to upgrade the existing grid has been considered (e.g TS Conductors)

However, one good thing has come out of the review: undergrounding using HVDC cables along the entire Norwich to Tilbury route instead of AC cables (as currently proposed) has scored very well.  HVDC trenching is far less damaging than than AC trenching (currently proposed in the Dedham Vale).   We will be liaising with our advisers and studying this option very carefully.

2023

National Grid’s second consultation ended on 21 August 2023.   Despite 26,000 people, 14 MPs, three county councils, several district councils and many parish councils saying NO to 180km through the heart of East Anglia and YES to an offshore grid, they continue to pursue their project.   

Next stage for NG will be a statutory consultation in 2024, followed by submission of their Development Consent Order to the Planning Inspectorate for examination.   We will be preparing a case at each stage, and submitted sixteen documents to the second non-statutory consultation.  In the meantime, there will be a review of options by National Grid ESO over the autumn and we await the results of government’s Offshore Coordination Support Scheme plus an independent report commissioned by Essex County Council.   We’ll be lobbying and we’ll be continuing to insist that National Grid follows, and is made by Ofgem to follow, the mandatory Treasury Green Book guidelines.

There is no need for this destructive project.  We want an integrated offshore grid in the North Sea as it has been shown by National Grid ESO to save £2bn and to reduce overall infrastructure by 50%.

What can you do right now to help?

• Order a banner or placard – see Printing tab
• Sign up to receive emails – see Contact tab
• Share the petition – it’s on this Home page
• Donate to our legal fund – see Fundraising tab
• Action – visit our Action page

National Grid first called this proposal ‘East Anglia GREEN’, because it will transport green energy!

Talk about missing the bigger picture. The pylons are intrusive, destroy our historic landscapes and will require huge loss of trees.  Subsequently, they have perhaps realised their mistake and it is now called ‘The Great Grid Upgrade Norwich to Tilbury’.

National Grid’s idea of ‘GREEN’

– 180km of 400kV overhead cables

– 50-metre high pylons (except in the Dedham AONB, where they will be buried)​

– From Norwich to Tilbury, cutting through countryside, past villages and near historic buildings in Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk

– New 400 kV connection substation proposed at Elmstead Market, near Colchester.

Sign the PETITION!: click here