Marine Renewables: Government Support for Commercial Roll-out

Ben Lake Excerpts

Tuesday 8th December 2020 Westminster Hall

[Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) (Con)]

I had not intended to speak, but now I am on my feet, and why give up the opportunity? I will put on the record again how excited I am by some of the developments off the west Wales coast. There is no shortage of projects coming forward and companies with various track records, but lots of good ideas and good intent for this new industry, which we have debated and talked about a lot in recent years. As the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) said, we are on the cusp of seeing those developments come to fruition if the right conditions are put in place.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion) (PC)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Stephen Crabb]

I will give way to my next-door neighbour in Ceredigion.

[Ben Lake]

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that one of the most exciting aspects of the sector’s potential is that areas such as ours in south-west Wales have the opportunity to be at the forefront of a new green industrial revolution?

[Stephen Crabb]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right.

The only other point that I will make, before I allow the Minister to respond, is that in a constituency such as mine, for the last almost 50 years, the economy has been heavily dependent on oil refining. We as a country, and as a Government, have now made a commitment to bring forward a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol engines, and we are moving away from a carbon-based economy. Constituencies such as mine are vulnerable to the big strategic changes that we are mandating as part of our efforts to meet the global challenge of climate change. There is a duty on the Government to help bring forward replacement jobs—high-quality jobs and apprenticeships—in new exciting clean technologies.