SNP says winning majority would trigger independence talks

Labour will lift “the Conservatives’ onshore wind ban in England” within days of coming to power, Ed Miliband told an industry conference in Manchester earlier.

It is part of a massive deregulation of the UK’s planning system that lies at the heart of Labour’s growth strategy.

At the top of the list of the projects Labour wants to usher through are a host of solar farms and onshore wind turbines, together with the web of pylons needed to carry the electricity they will generate into the grid.

The projects will affect communities across the country.

Miliband’s team confirmed to the BBC that a requirement that community concerns be “appropriately addressed” – which puts an effective block on onshore wind projects – would be removed as soon “as soon as Parliament is sitting” if Labour forms a government.

Separately Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, told the Today programme if Labour gets a majority, it would “get cracking […] straight away” to update the national planning framework.