6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Offshore renewable energy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:00 pm on 18 January 2023.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:00, 18 January 2023

The difference there, of course, is that that's a hypothetical concern, and the actual concern was that the UK Government would not support it. We have recently done an end-to-end review of marine licensing in Wales, because we want to have the most effective and efficient system. Only yesterday I discussed it with NRW's marine licensing team. So, we are absolutely on that. But we need both Governments to step up to the mark. It's just as simple as that. The UK Conservative Government has not brought forward a contracts for difference mechanism of the scale and sophistication to match the extent and nature of the opportunities in the offshore marine sector. They need to significantly expand the contracts for difference to enable more projects—and crucially more projects at different scales—to come forward if we are to become the world leaders we can be in this sector. And crucially, they need to ensure that the auction round for the Celtic sea contains robust local supply and employment conditions in it and does not just go to the highest bidder so that the profits come once to the Crown Estate and then all the other profits are exported from the UK. And you know that as well as I do, and you need to call on them to do just that. 

And in addition to that, the UK Conservative Government continues to fail to reform the development of the national grid, completely constraining our ability to deliver a planned expansion of grid infrastructure in line with a rapid and wholesale switch to renewables. I'm really sorry to have to say that, instead, the UK Government presides over a slow, expensive, piecemeal approach under which all aspects of the energy system suffer, locking communities out of opportunities for jobs, locking out the nature restoration that Janet always triumphs, and the regeneration that energy investment absolutely should and could bring. The First Minister only yesterday told you of the concerns that we have both had expressed to us, that we get this energy—really lovely, green, renewable energy with all of the resource and jobs that you have all talked about—to the beach and then where does it go? Because, without the grid, there's nowhere for it to go. So, the UK Government must—must—bring forward the grid reform—must. 

The other issue with the UK Government is that it relies far too heavily on adding costs to consumer bills rather than on general taxation in order to meet these challenges. The regulatory asset base model of development is no good, absolutely no good. It's highly regressive and it's an unfair way, which places disproportionate burdens on those who can least bear it. [Interruption.]