The DCO Process

Our decarbonisation project is being assessed through an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) submitted under the Planning Act 2008. Following community and stakeholder engagement, our application has now been accepted by the Planning Inspectorate.

We undertook extensive local stakeholder and community consultation prior to submitting the application for development consent, engaging with a wide range of community, technical and political stakeholders, including local residents and the local authority (London Borough of Bexley).

We are also engaging with key stakeholders such as the Friends of Crossness Nature Reserve, Peabody and Thames Water to improve green spaces in the local area and provide positive outcomes for nature and the local community.

Our introductory consultation ran from 5 June to 14 July 2023. This initial consultation period marked the first opportunity for us to engage the local community and key stakeholders on our early plans and invite feedback to help shape our project.

We also held a further round of consultation between Wednesday 18 October and Wednesday 29 November. It marked a further opportunity to provide comments before we submitted our DCO application to the Secretary of State.

In May 2025, the project concluded the examination phase of the DCO process, in which a panel of independent inspectors conducted an examination of the application. The examining authority will now prepare a report on the application along with their recommendation for the Secretary of State to consider. The Secretary of State will then have a further three months to make a decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.

For the latest updates on the status of our application please click this link to visit the project page on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.