UK voters put off by anti-onshore wind talk - survey

Jul 11, 2014 - By promising to end support for onshore wind farms in Britain politicians are actually losing much more support than they are gaining, a poll by market research agency ComRes showed this week.

Some 30% of UK adults are less likely to vote for a party proposing to block future wind farm development onshore. Meanwhile, such a move is likely to attract only 15% of voters. What is more, the ComRes survey showed that in the 40 most marginal Conservative/Labour constituencies, those who are more likely to vote for a party with anti-onshore wind plans are only 10%, while 39% are less likely to do so.

The poll, carried out between June 20 and June 22, includes interviews with 2,065 adults in Britain. It was commissioned by trade association RenewableUK, which pointed out in a statement today that anti-onshore wind attitude is mostly putting off supporters of Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

At the same time, local candidates for election that support the future development of onshore wind projects are more likely to get the support of some 23% of British voters. Just about 16% of those polled said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate.

“The public understands that we need more onshore wind,” commented RenewableUK CEO Maria McCaffery.

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