The Government has published its development consent decision on the transmission assets linked to the Morgan Offshore Wind Project and the Morecambe Offshore Windfarm. According to the Planning Inspectorate's announcement, the application covered offshore export cables, landfall works, onshore export cables, substations, grid connection cables, circuit breaker compounds and related onshore infrastructure. In practical terms, the application concerned the network needed to bring power from the offshore schemes into the onshore electricity system. That makes the decision relevant not only to the wind projects themselves, but also to coastal landfall locations, onshore routing and local grid infrastructure.
The application was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by Morgan Offshore Wind Limited and Morecambe Offshore Windfarm Limited on 21 October 2024, and it was accepted for examination on 18 November 2024. Under the Planning Act 2008, that acceptance moved the project into the nationally significant infrastructure process used for major energy schemes. Following a six-month examination, the Examining Authority sent its recommendation to the Secretary of State on 29 January 2026. The Planning Inspectorate states that the case was completed within the statutory timetable set by the 2008 Act.
The Planning Inspectorate's account places public participation at the centre of the examination stage. Local residents, the relevant local authority, statutory consultees and other interested parties were able to submit evidence and take part while the application was being tested. That procedural point matters for affected communities. In the development consent regime, the examination stage is where route impacts, environmental evidence, land use questions and proposed mitigation are formally tested before a recommendation reaches ministers.
The Inspectorate describes the case as the 113th energy application out of 181 applications examined to date. For policy readers, that places the decision within a well-established pipeline of nationally significant infrastructure projects rather than as an isolated planning case. It also shows how offshore wind deployment depends on associated transmission works moving through the same statutory system. Generation proposals may attract most public attention, but cables, substations and grid connection compounds are often the parts of a scheme most directly experienced by host communities.
The full decision, the Examining Authority's recommendation and the evidence considered in reaching that recommendation are now available on the National Infrastructure Planning website, according to the Government notice. That means the formal record behind the outcome is open for review by residents, practitioners and developers. For those tracking infrastructure consenting, these documents are the main source for understanding how policy tests were applied, how consultation responses were handled and what evidence informed the final outcome.
The announcement states that the decision was made by Baroness Curran on behalf of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero under the department's legal authority. That reflects the structure of the Planning Act 2008 process, in which an Examining Authority reports first and a ministerial decision is then issued. Taken together, the publication is a procedural marker as much as an energy one. It closes the examination phase for this application, confirms that statutory deadlines were met and leaves the full case record in the public domain for continued scrutiny.