Free to frack at last. The Government has cleared the logjam stopping the development of Britain’s first shale gas reserves and Cuadrilla Resources, the company at the centre of it all, can finally rev up the drills.

The intervention of Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, opens the door to an industry that will generate jobs, cheaper household bills, energy security and lower carbon emissions. It has taken far too long to get to this point, but now that we have, there must be no more delays. 

 It has been a staggering six years since Cuadrilla first began work on the Lancashire site it wants to drill. In that time, shale gas extraction has gone from being a marginal industry to the United States’ biggest source of energy, making the country self-sufficient for the first time in decades. While this mini-industrial revolution was taking place across the pond, Britain was obsessing over planning documents, legal appeals and face-painted, drumming protesters in kilts.

The birth of a shale gas industry could be a huge bonus for Britain at a time of rising economic uncertainty. Investors are watching nervously to assess the effects of Brexit and Theresa May has lurched leftwards to deploy a stream of anti-business rhetoric. So it matters more than ever that the Government means it when it claims Britain is open for business. This first permission granted to Cuadrilla is a decent start.

The direct economic benefits of fracking are obvious. Cuadrilla’s work alone could create several thousand jobs, many of them in the North, and it has several rivals trying to develop their own sites in the region. The development of the US’s gas industry also led to a rapid revival of the country’s declining manufacturing industry. Companies that had for years been shifting their operations to Mexico and Asia started setting up factories in the Gulf to take advantage of bargain energy prices.

Full-scale production in Britain is still some years away, but when it comes on-stream, the whole country will benefit. We are heavily reliant on gas for heat and power. Household electricity bills have risen 14pc since Cuadrilla started work in Lancashire, even as prices have plunged abroad. MPs harangue energy companies constantly about why Britain pays such high bills. If they were serious about cutting costs, they would look to their own obstructive policies.

Of course, we do not know quite how much gas can be recovered from the rocks under Lancashire, because Cuadrilla has not been allowed to find out. But the estimates so far suggest it is an enormous amount and easily enough to provide a massive boost for Britain’s energy security without the eye-watering costs of a project like Hinkley Point C.

David Fuller's view

This is a sensible decision, long overdue.  Europe has the highest energy costs of any major region of the globe.  It is yet another reason for the EU’s economic underperformance. 

Fracking will be of enormous benefit to the UK economy, creating the potential for significantly lower energy costs in the next decade and beyond, while providing many new jobs.  Lower energy costs will help all sectors of the economy and make independent Britain the most cost-competitive country in developed Europe.  From the USA to Japan this will attract more manufacturing companies to Britain for export to the European region.  This will be transformative for the Midlands and also northern regions of the UK. 

Here is a PDF of Juliet Samuel’s article for The Telegraph.