DESNZ is offering ‘savings’ of ‘up to’ £2,500 over 10 years to households living near new or upgraded pylons, with discounts to electricity bills.

Payments will start from next year, as the first projects expected to be in scope of the Government’s bill discount scheme have been finally unveiled.

43 locations could ‘benefit’ from hosting grid infrastructure, with those living within 500 metres of these projects are expected to get £250 per annum off their electricity bills for 10 years.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: “Upgrading Britain’s electricity grid is a vital part of how we deliver secure, homegrown energy and unlock economic growth across the country. It is a moment of national renewal, upgrading what was built largely in the 1960s for the modern age to bring down electricity bills for households across the country.”

The 43 transmission projects announced form the first wave, with further projects to follow as the scheme is rolled out. It is expected that hundreds of thousands of homes will be affected by the scheme in total over the next decade.

The Bill Discounts Scheme will be administered by Ofgem. The Impact Assessment published in March 2026 estimated that 120,000 to 160,000 households could be eligible to receive a bill discount in the period from scheme launch out to 2044. The actual number of eligible properties that will receive these payments will be dependent on the projects that will be in scope of the scheme and the projects’ final locations.

Only new onshore, overground transmission infrastructure built by Transmission Operators, where construction started on or after 10 March 2025 will be in scope for the Bill Discount Scheme. This includes associated onshore transmission infrastructure (such as substations, convertors, switching stations and sealing-end compounds) and the onshore infrastructure of any subsea power lines (like converter stations).

The Government also introduced new guidelines in March 2025 on how network operators should allocate Community Funds for their transmission projects, with communities to get £200,000 worth of funding per km of overhead electricity cable in their area, and £530,000 per substation, converter station or switching station.

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