The evolving approach to the assessment of the local socio-economic impacts of major energy projects – with particular reference to UK new nuclear and offshore wind projects
Creators: name: Glasson, John
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2025

description: Socio-economic impacts are the ‘people impacts’ of development
 actions/projects. Socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) seeks to
 identify and assess such impacts in project planning and decision-making.
 The focus of this research is primarily on the impacts of building major
 energy projects in the UK. A secure energy supply is vital for the
 functioning of society, yet the construction and operation of new energy
 facilities can be controversial, especially for the host locality. The aim
 of the research programme has been to research, document, analyse and
 advance the assessment of the socio-economic impacts of large and very
 large UK energy projects, especially on their local and regional host
 areas. The more detailed objectives were to advance the profile of
 socio-economic impacts and their assessment in the environmental impact
 assessment (EIA) process; develop SEIA process and methodology; examine
 the roles and changing relationships among stakeholders in the process;
 and particularly to assess the effectiveness of SEIA, learning from
 experience and follow-up (monitoring and auditing of impacts).
 
 
 Fourteen publications are submitted as part of the PhD by Published Work,
 including four book chapters especially on SEIA evolution, methodology and
 follow-up, and ten journal articles covering the scope of socio-economic
 impacts, SEIA methods, major project monitoring and auditing studies and
 community benefits agreements.
 
 
 The report begins with an introduction including the origins of the
 research, followed by a section setting out the researcher’s overall
 research programme, objectives and methodologies employed. The core
 sections of the report then examine in greater depth the main themes of
 the research and the original contributions to knowledge represented by
 the works, especially relating to the case studies of UK new nuclear power
 stations and offshore wind farms. They review the researcher’s work on
 advancing the socio-economic impacts of major energy projects and their
 assessment in the context of EIA and contributions to the evolving SEIA
 process and methodologies. The case studies examine key participants
 involved in the process and the role of community benefits agreements, and
 especially the importance of follow–up (monitoring and auditing) and
 adaptive assessment and management.
 
 
 The final section draws some overall conclusions on the development of
 SEIA in light of the documented research, summarises the original
 contributions to knowledge, influence on policy and practice, and proposes
 some future research directions for this field. Contributions include
 documentation of the need for SEIA, developments in process and methods,
 coverage of the emerging community benefits approaches, and especially of
 the importance of follow-up and learning from experience. Examples of
 future research directions include covering impacts over the full life
 cycle (including decommissioning), assessing impacts of emerging energy
 technologies such as small modular reactors and floating wind farms,
 cumulative socio-economic impacts assessment, comparative community
 benefits approaches, and approaches to the more effective resourcing of
 the essential impact monitoring and auditing activities.