A survey, commissioned by the climate change organisation 10:10, and carried out by YouGov has found many would not like to live near a nuclear plant or fracking site.
Asked whether they ‘would be happy/unhappy to live within 5 miles’ of a nuclear plant 62% of the public stated that they would be unhappy.
Similarly 61% would be unhappy to live within 5 miles of a site on which fracking for shale was taking place.
Conversely, the poll also found that the public would be happy to live near wind projects with 65% saying they would be happy to live within 5 miles of a wind farm while 69% would be happy to live within 5 miles of a community wind turbine scheme.
The online survey sample size was 1,660 adults and fieldwork was undertaken between 12 – 13 September 2017.
YouGov also surveyed the opinions across the political divide splitting respondents according to whether they supported the Conservative or Labour parties.
The results showed that 69% of Labour Party support would be unhappy living next to a nuclear plant whereas that number was only 55% for Tory support.
In relation to fracking, 71% on the Labour side said they would be unhappy about living within 5 miles of site while the Conservative number was just 55%.
Onshore wind farms did much better with 56% of Tory support and 76% of Labour saying they would be happy to live within 5 miles of a site.
Ellie Roberts campaigner at 10:10 Climate Action said: “The government’s own survey data has long shown that when asked, most British people say they would be happy to host wind farms in their neighbourhoods. But the government has so far neglected to ask this question about their favoured new energy sources, fracking and small modular nuclear reactors.
“Our new survey helps to plug this gap in our understanding of public attitudes – and shows that the reverse is true for these technologies.”