The UK Government has extended the statutory deadlines for decisions on two applications for offshore wind farm projects: the Outer Dowsing offshore wind farm and the Morecambe offshore wind farm. The announcement was made in a statement to Parliament by the Minister for Energy Consumers, Martin McCluskey.
The statutory deadline for the decision on the Outer Dowsing project, a proposed 1.5 GW offshore wind farm off the coast of Lincolnshire, was October 10, 2025. The Minister has set a new deadline of February 10, 2026. For the Morecambe project, located in the eastern Irish Sea, the deadline has been moved from October 23, 2025, to December 18, 2025.
The reason given for both extensions 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 that new information.
The minister stated, "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."
He also noted that the decision to set the new deadlines is without prejudice to the final decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent for the projects.
