GB Energy to work with Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms, says Labour

The Crown Estate owns the vast majority of Britain’s seabed, stretching up to 12 nautical miles from the mainland, and leases parts of it to wind farm operators.

The Government said on Thursday that GB Energy will help develop future offshore wind projects, as part of its push to hasten the UK’s transition to renewable energy.

It is also designed to reduce the UK’s reliance on energy imported from other countries by generating more of its own electricity.

The Crown Estate estimates the partnership will lead to up to 20-30 gigawatts of new offshore wind developments being leased by 2030, enough to power almost 20 million homes.

Ministers laid out fresh details on what GB Energy will do with its £8.3 billion of funding over the next five years, as the Great British Energy Bill is introduced to Parliament on Thursday and will receive its second reading on September 5.

The company is set to lead energy projects through development stages to speed up the process, before returning them to private ownership but maintaining a stake.

It could, however, become an operator of such projects over time.

Leading the development of green power projects will come alongside GB Energy’s previously announced role of acting as a co-investor on schemes with private sector firms.

Officials will also look at how GB Energy could join forces with Great British Nuclear, a public body which helps bring forward new nuclear energy projects, and support local energy generation projects through partnerships with local councils.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the Crown Estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good.

“This agreement will drive up to £60 billion in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Great British Energy comes from a simple idea – that the British people should own and benefit from our natural resources.

“The agreement with the Crown Estate will lead to more investment, cleaner power, more energy security, and is a statement of intent that it will be a permanent and transformative institution for our country.”

Speaking to broadcasters on Thursday morning, Mr Miliband said it would “take time” for GB Energy to start making money.

Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the Commons, and the Government has set aside £8.3 billion to invest in new wind farms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return.

“Within the lifetime of this Parliament it will start generating returns,” he told BBC Breakfast.

However, he could not give a timeline for when people can expect their bills to go down.

“Within a couple of years, as we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills, but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control… I can’t promise you what’s going to happen to gas prices.

“But I can say that, if we drive to clean, homegrown British energy, we will have much more control over what happens to bills.”

The Crown Estate has a £16 billion portfolio of land and seabed, and returns its profits to the Government, a small portion of which goes to the monarchy.

Much of its £1.1 billion profit last year came from offshore wind projects, and it is already engaged in a significant push to find and develop new plots of the seabed for companies to build wind turbines on.

In a separate Bill, the Crown Estate is set to be given new borrowing powers, confirmed in last week’s King’s Speech, which are designed to help it invest more in preparing its seabeds for offshore wind and other projects.

Under current rules, the Crown Estate cannot use its cash reserves to invest because it must hold them against the prospect of future financial losses.

Crown Estate chief executive Dan Labbad said:  “The Crown Estate exists to serve the national interest, including stewarding our natural resources to deliver a decarbonised, energy secure and sustainable future.

“With new powers and by partnering with government, we can drive greater investment into this future for our country, and with it support nature recovery and job creation.”

It comes after the Government scrapped a de facto ban on onshore wind farms earlier this month, reversing planning measures brought in for England by the Conservatives in 2015 under David Cameron.

Onshore wind was treated differently from other developments under the rules, which stopped schemes going ahead if there were any objections.

Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said Labour had dropped its claim that its plans could save £300 off energy bills by 2030.

“The public has been sold a lie that a Labour Government will cut their energy bills by £300,” she said.

“Now that they’ve won the election they’ve tried to brush that figure under the carpet, showing us the truth that GB Energy is nothing but a gimmick that will end up costing families, not cutting bills.”

Ms Coutinho said GB Energy would mean “funnelling taxpayers’ money into reducing risk for multimillion-pound energy companies” while the 2030 decarbonisaton target “will hike bills and ramp up our dependence on batteries and cables from China”.

“Now they’re saying bills may go up… but the truth is even worse. Labour’s plans for energy are going to mean huge costs for British families,” she said.