Theresa May unveils plan for £10,000 handouts to fracking town familes in huge profit-sharing plan
The money will go straight into the occupier's bank account as new PM wants economy for everyone
THOUSANDS of families will strike it rich under plans to share the profits from fracking with the general public.
Every household will get a cash windfall of up to £10,000 in areas where drilling for shale gas takes place.
The move will trigger a gold rush-style boom in 68 fracking hotspots around the country.
Theresa May wants local residents to benefit directly from the prosperity the new energy source will bring to their area.
She will give them a ten per cent cut of all tax revenues derived from shale gas exploration in their community.
The lottery-size pay-outs will run into thousands of pounds per household – and will be paid straight into the occupier’s bank account.
Mrs May’s plan to spread the gains is the latest move in her drive to deliver an economy which works for everyone.
And the idea could be used as a model for direct profit sharing in future major projects, such as high-speed rail, airport runways and nuclear power plants.
Plans to give neighbourhoods a share of the Shale Wealth Fund were first unveiled by former Chancellor George Osborne in his last autumn statement.
He announced the money would go to local councils to be spent on local roads, leisure centres and skills training.
But Mrs May has torn up the plan and insists the money – which could top £10 million in many areas – should go straight into the hands of local residents.
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She said last night: “The government I lead will always be driven by the interests of the many – ordinary families for whom life is harder than many people in politics realise.
“As I said on my first night as Prime Minister, when we take the big calls, we’ll thing not of the powerful but of you.
“This is an example of putting those principles in action. It’s about making sure people personally benefit from economic decisions that are taken – not just councils – and putting them back in control over their lives.”
Mrs May’s wealth-sharing plan is included in a consultation document that goes out this week on options for to share the proceeds of shale.
Fracking firms will drill up to 68 gas wells in England in the next five years, after being handed new rights to explore across an estimated 4,500 square miles of land.
At least 14 of the new drilling sites – in parts of Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - are expected to be fracked under the plans, as ministers attempt to “get shale gas moving”.
The areas earmarked for shale exploration include parts of the North York Moors and Peak District national parks as well as several Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of George Osborne’s Tatton constituency.
Experts predict there is 1,300 trillion cubic feet of gas beneath our feet - enough to supply the UK for the next 520 years.
Mrs May has vowed to make direct benefits plan a blueprint for other schemes.
She added: “We’ll be looking at applying this approach to other government programmes in the future as we press on with work of building a country that works for everyone.”