Fracking support goes negative ‘for first time’

Accord to the survey, which has been running since 2012, a little more than 37% of the public support the extraction and use of shale gas. 

That figure is down from the 58% that were found to support fracking in July 2013, the university said. 

The downturn in public attitudes that we first saw after the Balcombe protests in 2013 has persisted for far longer than we might have expected

Mathew Humphrey, co-director of the survey

Sarah O’Hara, from the School of Geography at the university and co-director of the survey, said: “The sharp downturn in support for the extraction and use of shale gas in the UK over the last 12 months is hugely significant, as is the fact that for the first time since we began running the survey in March 2012 more people are against shale gas extraction than in favour. 

The Balcombe protests in Sussex in August 2013 could have been the catalyst for the fall in support, though the university says there is no concrete evidence to back up this claim. 

“The downturn in public attitudes that we first saw after the Balcombe protests in 2013 has persisted for far longer than we might have expected,” said Mathew Humphrey, from the School of Politics and International Relations at the university and co-director of the survey. 

“This may partly reflect lower energy prices making the apparent need for shale gas less urgent, and so less worthy of the potential risks. The results show that the government will increasingly have its work cut out selling fracking to the UK public.” 

Earlier this month, the government gave fracking firm Cuadrilla the green light to drill for shale in Lancashire – at its Preston New Road site, overruling the County Council’s original decision. 

Because of that decision, Cuadrilla will be the first company to frack shale rock horizontally in the UK, a technique which is expected to produce more gas than vertical methods.