Brighton MP criticises censored official report on how fracking hits house prices

The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas has criticised the government for censoring an official report into the effects of fracking.

Among the findings were that shale gas extraction – commonly known as fracking – had hurt house prices near drilling sites in America.

She told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that it made her wonder how serious the redacted sections must be.

Dr Lucas said: “This report would be comical if it wasn’t so serious because there is just so much of it that’s been blacked out.”

Evidence suggested that “rural communities face three major social impacts associated with shale gas drilling”, she quoted the report as saying, adding: “And then you have redacted, redacted, redacted.

Caroline Lucas at a protest against fracking in the Sussex village of Balcombe

“If we’re going to have a proper debate about energy futures in this country, we can’t do that if the government isn’t being straight with the British public.

“The only conclusion you can draw from looking at this report is that the government has got something to hide and I think we need to know what it is.

“The British public have got a right to know what the impact is of fracking in their local communities and this report is hiding that from them.

“We don’t need fracking.

“The research has been done, the conclusions are embarrassing to the government and that’s why they don’t want to put it in the public domain.”

The report is called Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts and was written in March. A draft version of the report was released under the Environmental Information Regulations.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs defended the redactions saying that they were needed so that policy-makers could debate the evidence without disclosing their “early thinking”.