Belltown Power have written to the communities of Peebles, Eddleston and Innerleithen explaining why they rejected all three requests PCC put to Belltown Power in April 2025.

"Dear Community Councils,

As discussed in the latest meeting of the Leithenwater Wind Energy Hub Community Liaison Group, held on the 14th of January 2026, please find below a clarification of Belltown Power’s community offering. I hope this helps explain why we feel the community offering is industry-leading and represents a real benefit to the local community. Our FAQs on community benefit and community ownership are also provided to answer any broader questions.

Community Benefit

Belltown Power offers a community benefit fund of £5000 per MW of installed capacity per year in line with Scottish Government guidance as published in 2019^[1]. With the current proposal of 13 turbines, assuming 6.6MW per turbine, the fund would be £420,000 per year. This figure is index-linked to CPI so it will increase with inflation. The base date of indexation will be the commercial operation date of Leithenwater Wind Energy Hub, i.e. the date of first generation^[2]. This is how the standard guidance is generally employed by the wind industry in Scotland^[3]. We are also highly motivated to get the project operating and subsequently get the community benefit payments flowing as soon as possible, since commercial operation will provide the first project revenues. In reality, since 2019, project economics have become more challenging due to significant rises in equipment cost. Despite this, we (along with most other developers) have retained our previously stated commitments to be at the suggested level of £5000 per MW per year.

Community Ownership

Belltown goes well above and beyond the industry benchmark through our generous community ownership offer, which donates 1% of the project to the community at no cost and offers a further 4% at cost once operational (which should be well below the true market value of the share at that point). The ultimate value of the 1% donation and the 4% at cost will depend on several inputs ranging from technical (wind speed, final turbine candidate, total capital expenditure) to financial influences (power price, inflation, CfD pricing, etc.). Indicatively, it could have a value of several thousand pounds per MW. Once the project is further developed, we will be able to share more detailed and accurate information regarding the community ownership offering. Belltown expect to support the community in sourcing and delivering the financing required to acquire the 4% cost if the community chooses to subscribe to that portion of the offer.

Yours sincerely,

Benjamin Thorne
Development Manager for Leithenwater Wind Energy Hub"

Read Belltown Power's letter

[1] Page 5 of the guidance says:

"We will continue at a national level to promote community benefits of the value equivalent to £5000 per installed megawatt per annum, index linked for the operational lifetime of the project."

[2] Belltown Power do not expect Leithenwater to start generation before 2030. Legal advice to our three Community Councils says that accounting for the time period between 2019, and the first anniversary of commercial operation, it would be prudent to request that this £5,000 per MW figure be index linked using 2019 as the base date. Broadly speaking, this would allow for the £5,000 per MW to be adjusted for inflation between 2019 and the relevant date of payment (rather than solely adjusted for inflation between payment dates after the commercial operation date).

[3] Index linking (i.e. taking inflation into account) a payment of £5000 in Dec 2025 would only have been worth £3540 in May 2019. This is already a reduction of 30% – and the later Leithenwater wind farm starts, the less Belltown Power's offer is worth.

If this is standard practice within the wind industry, communities receive less money in real terms (after inflation) the later wind farms start.

On the 19th of April 2025, PCC wrote to Belltown Power responding to their community benefit offering. We asked for the following changes to the memorandum of understanding (MOU):

1. In accordance with legal advice taken collectively by Eddleston, Innerleithen and Peebles Community Councils, we asked that the base date for inflation indexing specified in the Scottish Government Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Benefits be specified as 8 May 2019 (the day the guidance was last issued).
2. With Scottish government consultations in progress for Community benefits from net zero energy developments, and the Scottish Community Coalition on Energy calling for community benefits of 5% of revenue from on-shore wind farms with a minimum of £7300 per MW per annum – substantially above Belltown Power's offering – we asked that signing these MOUs now should not lock our communities into the current, lower rate, preventing us benefitting from any increases resulting from consultations (see News 13 Mar 2025).
3. We asked for administrative costs to be paid by Belltown Power – not Community Benefit funds.

Belltown Power rejected all three proposed changes.

Read our 19 Apr 2025 letter