James Evans has further questioned the Welsh Government about large-scale windfarms planned for his constituency.

The Brecon and Radnorshire MS asked Economy Secretary, Jeremy Miles, at the Senedd about any talks he has had with developers.

He said that with the Government aiming for 70 per cent renewable energy consumption by 2030, many windfarm developers will need compulsory purchase orders to acquire the land they need.

Mr Evans asked Mr Miles: “Will the Government be helping these companies with their compulsory purchase orders for their large-scale developments?

“If some of these proposed windfarms become commercially non-viable or some of the companies running them go bust, can you rule out that the Government will not step in and take forward any of these schemes as part of the Government's energy company?”

Mr Miles said he didn’t think there had been any suggestion of that.

He said: “Our policy as a Government is to support the principle of developing renewable and low-carbon energy from a range of technologies.

“From the point of view of planning and consenting, the Infrastructure (Wales) Bill, which will be a step change in that as an Act, will bring forward new consenting processes, streamlining and unifying consenting arrangements for renewables as well as other large-scale devolved infrastructure projects.

“From a planning and consenting perspective, my interest is making sure that there is sufficient capacity in that part of the system to enable projects to be taken forward in a way that complies with planning requirements and respects the needs of local communities.

“There have been a number of process improvements which we've introduced already, as well as additional dedicated funding for Natural Resources Wales, and I'm hopeful that that will make a significant contribution.”

Speaking after the session, Mr Evans said: “The Welsh Government must come clean on whether they intend to help developers purchase the land they need for these large-scale projects to go ahead.

“I am concerned that the Cabinet Secretary for Economy refused to rule out the government stepping in to take over the running of said wind farms should the companies behind them go bust.

“He also said ‘planning requirements respects the needs of local communities’ – let’s hope the Ministers remember this when the time comes to approve or reject the proposals.”