The Development Consent Order (DCO) process

In October 2022, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy issued a direction under section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 that the Project should be treated as a development for which development consent is required.

Consent to construct, operate, maintain, and decommission the Project has therefore been sought under the Planning Act 2008.

The Morgan Offshore Wind Project and the Morecambe Offshore Windfarm (Generation Assets) are each considered to be Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (“NSIPs”) and are the subject of separate applications for development consent. Both projects received development consent for their respective applications in 2025.

We submitted our application for development consent for the Transmission Assets Project to the Planning Inspectorate on Monday 21 October 2024, and it was formally accepted on Monday 18 November 2024.

The application for the Transmission Assets was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in October 2024 and accepted for examination in November 2024. The Preliminary Meeting took place in April 2025, formally commencing the examination process. A series of issues specific hearings and compulsory acquisition hearings took place during a six-month period, along with nine examination deadlines that needed to be met. On Wednesday 29 October 2025, the examination concluded, after which the Examining Authority prepared its report and recommendation to the Secretary of State.

We anticipate a final decision being made on the Transmission Assets application in September 2026.

For more information on the DCO process, you can visit the Planning Inspectorate website, here.