Labour to press on with pylons as study shows underground cables more costly

IET report says running cables below ground about four and a half times more expensive than overhead lines

Labour has vowed to press ahead with its plans to build more pylons across England and Wales, a subject of local political division, as a report says underground electricity cables are more than four times more expensive than overhead lines.

Pylons have become one of the key electoral issues in a number of counties including Lincolnshire, which is a local election battleground this week. Reform and the Conservatives have called for electricity cables to be buried underground rather than carried overhead by pylons.