Residents living near proposed fracking sites could be offered payments of between £500 and £1,000 to give their “consent” to gas wells being drilled near their homes.
Under plans being drawn up by ministers, agreement to the payments would mean the drilling had been given “local consent”, the test which the government has set out for wells to be approved.
This could then circumvent the planning process and allow projects to go ahead if they met environmental criteria, which would be assessed by local planning inspectors rather than having to be approved by council planning committees.
An alternative system would see locals receiving “royalties”.
