Ministers have approved a non-material change to the Norfolk Boreas Offshore Wind Farm consent, adding a route to pay into the new Marine Recovery Fund when on-site compensation inside the Haisborough, Hammond and Winterton Special Area of Conservation (SAC) cannot be fully delivered. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero published the decision on 19 December 2025.

The update shifts how compensation for cable installation and protection in the SAC can be delivered. Instead of a rigid pre-condition to clear a set area of marine debris before cables go down, the order now allows the undertaker to apply to make a Marine Recovery Fund Payment as an adaptive measure, with the Secretary of State agreeing the principle and sum in consultation with Defra.

Alongside the compensation changes, the order tidies up the consent: it inserts a definition of Defra, updates the ‘undertaker’ to Norfolk Boreas Limited and corrects several coordinates in the authorised development. Annual monitoring results must still go to the Secretary of State, the Marine Management Organisation and the statutory nature conservation body, with a completion report required within 12 months of finishing the programme.

If debris removal falls short, ministers can discharge the company from further site-specific compensation once a full Marine Recovery Fund payment is made or an approved instalment contract is in place-any payment schedule then remains binding. In plain terms, there’s a back‑stop that swaps hard-to-deliver clean-ups for strategic nature recovery, but only with Whitehall sign-off.

The HHW SAC is not an abstract line on a chart. JNCC describes a protected mosaic of shifting sandbanks and Sabellaria spinulosa reefs off the Norfolk coast-habitats sensitive to seabed disturbance from cable burial and protection. That sensitivity is why compensation is required in the first place.

Although the paperwork is East Anglia‑facing, the ripple effects reach north. From the Tyne through Tees to the Humber, marine contractors, cable outfits and vessel operators routinely support East Coast wind builds; a clearer compensation route should reduce consenting friction if plans change offshore, helping keep yards busy and boats on hire. The Norfolk Zone alone totals 4.2GW across three projects.

Ownership has shifted too. RWE completed its purchase of the Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone from Vattenfall in March 2024, and the government’s December 2025 decision page lists RWE Renewables UK as the company. Regulators have continued tuning the consents, with the MMO varying multiple deemed marine licences across Boreas and Vanguard during 2025.

Crucially, the fund route isn’t automatic. The developer must apply; the Secretary of State must be satisfied it is acceptable in principle and that Defra (or the fund operator) confirms the Marine Recovery Fund can be used and quantifies the payment. Obligations only switch off once those formalities are signed and the money starts flowing.

Community groups from Cromer to Scarborough will judge this by outcomes, not acronyms. The Energy Act frames the Marine Recovery Fund to deliver strategic compensation for offshore wind impacts; the real test is whether payments deliver visible improvements across our shared North Sea.

With the order now in effect, RWE must keep submitting monitoring results at least annually and table fixes if measures under‑perform. For coastal businesses across the North, any reduction in consenting friction is welcome-but the proof will be in the data, and in healthier sandbanks and reefs as JNCC’s advisers keep watch.