The UK Government has delayed a consent decision for two offshore windfarms developers are hoping to build in the North Sea
In a 13 October 2025 statement, Minister for Energy Consumers Martin McCluskey, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, confirmed that consent decisions for the Outer Dowsing and Morecambe offshore windfarms had both been delayed.
Outer Dowsing, a 1.5-GW project being developed by TotalEnergies, Corio and Gulf Energies, is expected to make use of up to 100 wind turbines and be built off the Lincolnshire coast in the southern North Sea. The 480-MW Morecambe offshore windfarm is being developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and will use up to 35 wind turbines and will be built in the eastern Irish Sea.
Under section 107(1) of the Planning Act 2008, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero must make a decision on an application within three months of the receipt of the Examining Authority’s report unless exercising the power under section 107(3) of the Act to set a new deadline. Where a new deadline is set, the Secretary of State must make a Statement to Parliament to announce it.
The statutory deadline for the decision on the Outer Dowsing project was 10 October 2025. This deadline has now been extended until 10 February 2026. This is to allow time to request further information that was not provided for consideration during the examination period and to give all interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on such information.
The statutory deadline for the decision on the Morecambe offshore windfarm generation assets proposed development is 23 October 2025. A new statutory deadline of 18 December 2025 has now been set, in order to allow time to request further information that was not available for consideration during the examination period and to give all interested parties the opportunity to review and comment on such information.
In the statement, the Minister said, “Whilst it is not my preference to extend, I am clear that applications for consent for energy projects submitted under the Planning Act 2008 must meet the necessary standards.The decision to set the new deadline for these applications is without prejudice to the decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.”
