New moves to speed up new power lines across East Anglia

Energy minister Michael Shanks has written to South Suffolk MP James Cartlidge telling him that the Offshore Co-ordination Support Scheme (OCSS) would no longer be funded.

Mr Shanks said that the scheme could delay the construction of power grids to link into new North Sea windfarms by up to five years.

He said it was vital that the government should encourage the creation of a new power grid as soon as possible to reach its 2030 target,

And he said a co-ordinated scheme could add £890m to development costs that would have to be passed on to consumers - and could cost an extra £1.5bn over the lifetime of the project.

James Cartlidge was frustrated by the decision. (Image: House of Commons)

Mr Cartlidge said he had been "tremendously frustrated" by the letter.

He said: "The government is talking about spending £4bn on a cable to take electricity from Scotland to the north of England but won't spend £800m to protect this part of the world.

"It's also a bit rich to have them saying they don't want to increase bills for households when thousands of my constituents are going to have to lose their winter fuel allowance this year!"

Suffolk County Council spokesman for major infrastructure Richard Rout said the decision looked like a clear signal that the government was determined to go ahead with the plans for a new electricity grid.

He said: "They're clearly determined to go ahead with this as fast as possible - I'm not sure this will be seen as such bad news in some coastal areas where there are fears about power converters but they're determined to go ahead with the power grid."

Energy Minister Michael Shanks (Image: House of Commons)

Mr Shanks said: "By getting more renewable energy on to the grid more quickly we will boost our energy independence and help to deliver on our mission for homegrown clean power by 2030."