The Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, has waded into the dispute over a proposed wind farm off the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, warning that it could cost the area its Unesco world heritage designation.

“This matter is of great interest to me,” Mr Javid wrote in a letter to the government’s planning inspectorate. “[Unesco] feel that the wind park would significantly impact on visitors’ experience and appreciation of the property in its wider natural setting. They assert that the development would put the UK in breach of the World Heritage Convention were it to be built.”