Planning Consent Awarded

The Dogger Bank South Offshore Wind Farms Development Consent Order (DCO), which covers both Dogger Bank South East and Dogger Bank South West, is currently at the decision stage with the UK Secretary of State. According to the Planning Inspectorate’s project page, the Secretary of State has reset the statutory deadline for determining the application to 14 May 2026, and the project is formally recorded as being in the ‘decision stage’, with that date set for completion of the decision process. This DCO will govern the overall planning consent for the two offshore wind farms and their associated offshore and onshore infrastructure, including high‑voltage export cables, onshore and offshore substations, grid connection works and ancillary temporary works. Prior to this latest reset, the statutory decision deadline had already been extended to 30 April 2026, as reported on the Dogger Bank South project website and in a government announcement on 7 January 2026. The developer partnership of RWE and Masdar publicly expressed disappointment at that delay but confirmed they would continue working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and stakeholders to provide any further information needed to progress the projects. The examination stage for the DCO application concluded in July 2025, with the Examining Authority’s report and recommendation submitted to the Secretary of State in October 2025, followed by several rounds of post‑examination consultations and information requests. The 14 May 2026 statutory deadline therefore represents the target date by which the Secretary of State is expected to issue the DCO decision that would, if positive, award planning consent for Dogger Bank South East.