Campaigners fighting plans for more pylons across East Anglia have been left "exasperated" after the National Grid boss said overhead power lines will definitely be needed to reach the UK target of 50GW from offshore wind.

Current plans for 110-miles of new overhead powerlines across large swathes of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex between the east coast and Tilbury has dismayed campaigners who want the plan reworked so cabling goes undersea around the coast and up the Thames estuary instead.

Under bold plans to boost long-term energy independence, security and prosperity through a significant acceleration of nuclear power - including Sizewell C - the new ambition is for 50GW to be generated from offshore wind – more than enough to power every home in the UK.

Speaking to the Today programme, National Grid CEO John Pettigrew said: “The target the UK Government has set is 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. In order to get that generation to where it is needed requires a huge amount of infrastructure to be built.

“To get a sense of it over the next eight years onshore we will need to build about seven times as much infrastructure in the next seven or eight years than we have built in the past 32 years.

“You will have 50GW of offshore wind on the east coast, today we have 10GW.

“In order to transport that electricity to where it is needed we are going to have to have more cables and more overhead lines.

“One of the things National Grid has been advocating for is that local communities should get benefits when they are hosting this infrastructure.”

Rosie Pearson, chairman of the Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons action group, said: “Exasperating to hear National Grid’s CEO on that hundreds of miles of pylons will be needed but not mentioning that a fully integrated offshore grid is a better solution for consumers, communities and the environment.”

Hopes have been raised that new prime minister Rishi Sunak will stop a 110-mile East Anglia GREEN project.

Thousands of people have expressed concern over the scheme’s visual and habitat impacts, with more than 22,000 signatures collected on a petition against it earlier this year. But with Mr Sunak’s arrival in Number 10, campaigners – who say the route should go offshore instead – are cautiously optimistic about what his premiership could mean for the project’s future.

Mrs Pearson said: “Unlike Liz Truss, who had her head in the sand about how to transmit excess wind power from the North Sea out of East Anglia, Rishi Sunak did state his position clearly during the summer leadership campaign.”

In an August letter to the group, a spokesman for Mr Sunak said he was “committed to doing all he can to reduce the amount of infrastructure required onshore” – a pledge Ms Pearson said her group was “delighted by”.

Earlier this month, National Grid said the next phase of consultation would take place in late spring 2023 and include detailed information showing how NG has developed the scheme in response to the feedback received so far.