George Osborne’s father-in-law has urged that fracking should happen in “derelict” northern areas rather than trying to “bribe” communities in the South to accept it.
Lord Howell of Guildford claimed wealthy homeowners in the South would be “unimpressed” by the amount of compensation being offered for allowing the controversial gas drilling to take place.
It follows a similar intervention by the Tory peer last July, when he attracted criticism for saying that fracking should be carried out in “desolate” areas of the North-East.
This time, in a journal published by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, he warned of protests in the Home Counties, saying: “Every time ministers open their mouths to claim that fracking must start everywhere around Britain, and not just in carefully selected and remote (derelict) areas, they lose thousands of Tory votes.
“In the North-East, the North-West and all the places where the Industrial Revolution has left the worst historical scars they do have just such areas, they have the gas and they have the local wish to see fracking investment.”
Lord Howell, a former energy minister, claimed that in the South: “Spending time and money trying to bribe and cajole rural communities is a complete waste, as well as putting backs up and losing rural votes. Villages ... where homes are worth a million will be unimpressed by £100k offers.”
Campaigners have raised fears that fracking could contaminate water and ruin the landscape. Green MP Caroline Lucas, who was arrested at a fracking protest in Sussex last year, said: “Lord Howell does acknowledge fracking is deeply unpopular, albeit he has put his foot in it again.”
