Oral Answers to Questions

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

Yes, but the hon. Gentleman does not say how the power station will be funded. The truth is that this is elementary economics. If things are announced, they need to be able to be funded, and the Conservatives need to learn that lesson.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

9. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on potential opportunities for industry under the national wealth fund.

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

10. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on potential opportunities for industry under the national wealth fund.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Sarah Jones)]

The national wealth fund is delivering a key manifesto commitment to set up a Government-backed investor—in some ways like the sovereign wealth funds we see in other countries—that will support the UK’s industrial strategy and economic growth. It will play a central role in our clean power mission by creating jobs in rapidly growing green industries. My role sits across the Department for Business and Trade, where I work on industrial strategy, and this Department, where I work on industrial decarbonisation, so I have a unique vantage point to see the benefits of the national wealth fund and all the opportunities it will bring.

[Jayne Kirkham]

As the Minister knows, I am concerned about kick-starting floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. The infrastructure and supply chain need building out quickly, but in a co-ordinated way, and the previous Government’s floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme was not enough to do that. Will the Minister please confirm that she is working with the wealth fund on a strategy and then speedy investment in ports such as Falmouth and the local supply chain, so that they are ready to take on the challenge of floating offshore wind?

Floating Offshore Wind: Celtic Sea

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Thursday 12th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. We are here today to talk about floating offshore wind, particularly in the Celtic sea. It is the next frontier in the UK’s clean energy transition, and is positioned to unlock up to 4 GW of power by 2035—enough to power 4 million homes. There are huge opportunities for Cornwall, the south-west of England and Wales, because the Celtic sea is all around us.

The ambition is to put floating offshore wind in the south-west, where it would complement other offshore arrays. The opportunities that arise from it for Cornwall and the region—for our supply chain, which is poised to expand, for our economy and for our people, who will benefit from skilled, good jobs—are vast. However, to be quite brutal, an ambition is pretty much all that it is so far.

The first question is, why floating offshore wind? Eighty per cent of the world’s potential offshore wind resources are in deeper waters. The Climate Change Committee estimates that the UK needs 100 GW of offshore wind by 2050, which is feasible only through the development of FLOW. FLOW is new technology, and the UK could be at the forefront of developing it for a global market, rather than relying on overseas supply chains and losing out on new investment in UK industries. The potential for jobs is vast.

Why the Celtic sea? Offshore wind has a successful history off the east coast of the UK. However, the wind blows both ways. By developing FLOW in the Celtic sea, we can maximise the energy generated and mitigate the intermittency. Previously, that was not possible due to the depth of the seabed, but new floating technology has opened up the region to development, and this could be a huge opportunity if it is done well. The current Government target is for 5 GW to be produced by FLOW by 2030. It is estimated that a 4.5 GW programme in the Celtic sea, as modelled by the Crown Estate, would lead to £1.4 billion in gross value added and 5,300 jobs in the development of port infrastructure and critical component supply across the region.

However, there are barriers. As I have said, FLOW has not got to the stage that we hoped it would be at by now. One of the barriers is the contracts for difference programme. After the failure of allocation round 5 to secure any FLOW projects at all under the last Government, the most recent funding round, under the new Government, resulted in the Green Volt project in the North sea securing CfD funding in AR 6. However, the budget for that pot was still too low for more than one of the three bidding projects to be successful. To reach the Government’s decarbonisation goals, contracts for difference will need to support multiple FLOW projects in each allocation round and the vital test and demonstration models—the stepping stone models—in the Celtic sea.

Projects in the North sea have received significantly more investment to date, and have more developed supply chains and port capabilities, enabling them to deploy FLOW at lower costs. There is no offshore oil or gas legacy in the Celtic sea; it is a greenfield site and lacks the infrastructure that it will need to scale up. It needs targeted support to reach equity with the North sea. Having had only one successful floating offshore project in previous CfD rounds across the Celtic sea has knocked investors’ confidence, so although this is a fantastic opportunity, there is a risk that investors’ interest in the region could be lost if we do not progress quickly.

To support the development of floating offshore wind, we need upgraded ports, which requires significant capital investment. However, uncertainty about the development of FLOW has led to investors holding off from developing those ports until contracts for difference have been awarded. That has led to a mismatch of timelines, as ports need investment about five years before the project is built out. The floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme has provided financial support for Port Talbot, although I understand that it has not yet been deployed. However, other ports in the region are needed to deploy floating offshore wind.

A multi-port strategy needs to be pursued in the Celtic sea to make the most of all the existing ports and specialisms. We have a port in Falmouth, which is mainly why I am here, but there are others in Appledore, Plymouth and Milford Haven, so many ports and port clusters could be got up to speed to help develop floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. Unfortunately, France is ahead of us; it has committed €900 million to the port of Brest, so we need to catch up. The Government’s £1.8 billion for ports in the national wealth fund could really help to provide the leading investment and certainty required to kick-start the port investment, if it is done quickly and in a strategic way.

The focus of developers in the Celtic sea is currently on the stepping stone, or test and demonstration, projects, which have an important role in giving confidence to the industry and reducing the costs and risk of future commercial-scale projects. There are currently two stepping stone projects in the Celtic sea that could be eligible to bid into the next contracts for difference auction round: Erebus and White Cross. However, both projects face challenges with planning issues, bottlenecks onshore in Devon, and investment.

Hexicon’s TwinHub project is the first and only FLOW project in the Celtic sea to win a contract for difference so far in allocation round 4. It consists of two turbines in Cornwall council’s Wave Hub. However, it now faces the same rising costs as the rest of the renewable energy sector, as well as the challenge of developing a supply chain in a region that has not yet had the opportunity to do so. The contract for difference price has become less viable over time. As a more expensive, smaller test model, it was never going to be commercially viable in that way, but as a stepping stone project, it is crucial to the development of FLOW and associated supply chains in the Celtic sea.

There are options available, such as making a deal with the end user for the energy or allowing TwinHub to rebid for a lower CfD price. A proactive and creative solution needs to be found to make those test and demonstration projects viable, and to scale them up in the long run. A consistent pipeline of leasing rounds in CfDs is key to scaling up skills and supply chains ahead of commercial projects coming forward for development. They would encourage developers to commit to the region, lay down roots, and plan ahead and invest.

Annual option fees also have an impact on developers’ ability to use local supply chains that need more time to establish. That increases costs and pushes projects towards using overseas supply chains, removing the benefits for local communities and investments into the region. More could be done by the Crown Estate to support local supply chains, and once the Crown Estate Bill has become law and investment funds are set up between developers and the Crown Estate, that could change. Falmouth port is prepared to match Government funding to get up to speed to support the TwinHub project. There is a risk that the economic benefits of the project may go overseas without additional funding to help develop the supporting onshore industry.

The development of FLOW in the Celtic sea will need huge amounts of mooring line, electric cables and anchors, which the region is currently not ready to supply. A unifying strategy is needed to encourage the necessary investment to develop those capabilities, along with others across the region. The floating offshore wind taskforce has identified realisable UK value in key components for floating wind, such as installation, mooring and anchors, concrete platforms, steel platforms, operation, maintenance and development services, ports and logistics, and array cables.

At present, the national grid is a large barrier for projects. The TwinHub project has been struggling to get the full grid capacity that it needs until 2037. We need a far-sighted and co-ordinated approach from the National Energy System Operator, which has been newly nationalised. NESO is beginning a holistic network design with the Crown Estate, but that needs to happen quickly and to be scaled up. The Celtic sea is a nationally, and potentially globally, important infrastructure project, and as such, it requires a specific strategic focus from central Government.

Having a GB Energy strategy on Celtic sea FLOW, with hopefully a presence in the region—maybe in Cornwall—would support co-ordination of infrastructure, industry and workforce. However, a complex set of stakeholders is involved, including government at all levels: national, devolved, Welsh nation, and different levels of south-west councils, as well as The Great South West, which is a pan-regional economic partnership. There is also Celtic Sea Power, and the newly set up Cornwall FLOW Commission, which has already done some of the work required to co-ordinate the supply chain and work out how to produce a skilled workforce—this needs a concentrated focus. There is currently no joined-up spatial strategy for the Celtic sea. Consultation on that strategy for the ocean, with fishers, conservationists and scientists, needs to be done very soon.

Having a unified strategy would enable phased development and, crucially, would support the prioritisation of investment in infrastructure and the local supply chain. It would also help streamline planning. Current planning and consent is too slow. A project currently takes an average of 15 years to move from leasing to operation. To reach the Government’s net zero goals, we need to speed up the process. For example, the White Cross test and demonstration project in north Devon has been struggling to get planning consent for more than 18 months.

What do we need? What are the key asks to get this going? A one-size-fits-all approach for the UK has not produced the necessary investment to get floating offshore wind off the ground in the Celtic sea. By putting it in direct competition with the North sea, the Celtic sea is likely to continue to lose out and the UK will lose the opportunity to harness all the benefits FLOW can bring. AR7 could, and should, ringfence funding for floating offshore wind, along either geographical or technological lines. Geographical ringfencing would remove direct competition with the North sea. Technological ringfencing would improve the competitive position of the test and demo stepping stone projects, which are so crucial to getting commercial sites up and running and which play a critical role in maintaining investor confidence in the region.

To overcome the challenges of developing onshore supply chain capabilities to deploy FLOW in the Celtic sea, the Government could support collaborative and strategic investment in ports, rather than putting them in competition with one another as FLOWMIS did. A specific targeted wealth fund could be created to invest in infrastructure, supply chain and to lever in private investment, with particular focus on ports. In the short term, we can have logistics hubs and technologies to include temporary portside space like Tugdock in the south-west. But long term, we need to invest not only in our ports and infrastructure, but in our rail, road and digital.

A co-ordinated approach to how the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Crown Estate, GB Energy and the national wealth fund exercise their procurement and auction processes, and the use of World Trade Organisation and trade and co-operation agreement exceptions for reasons of national energy security and net zero targets, could give freedom to add clauses into contracts and leases to encourage local supply chain building and workforce training investment by developers. Some developers have expressed interest in doing that and are even setting up headquarters to co-ordinate it. The Crown Estate’s option fees and the rules around how they are used could be reconsidered, so that they could be deployed as a catalyst for greater investment in that regional supply chain. DESNZ and the Crown Estate could put supply chain social value and biodiversity net gain incentives directly into those local delivery mechanisms.

We have world-class further education colleges in Cornwall that are ready to step up and provide the specialisms and scale of the workforce we need, but we need direction, funding and a long-term career pathway. We have discussed previously a FLOWmark programme to build up those skills specifically for this industry in our region.

In summary, we need a unified national strategy for floating offshore wind and a regional masterplan for FLOW in the Celtic sea. Without the strategy, we risk losing out on the benefits of this nationally important infrastructure project, including its export potential. We risk the goal of reaching clean energy by 2030. There is a huge future in the Celtic sea, and we need to reach out and grasp it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jayne Kirkham]

Thank you, Mr Efford; I certainly will not take 27 minutes. I thank the Minister and everybody who has come to this debate. I can tell by the passion how much we want this for the region, as has been set out by so many Members. We have some really deprived, post-industrial areas where we are, and, particularly in Cornwall, they have been post-industrial for a lot longer than other places. We could be a renewable gold mine. If we look at critical minerals, there is so much potential in Cornwall. It has become so desperately important that we start to realise some of those benefits, and there is enough for the whole of the region, for the south-west and for Wales. It is really important to note that this is a huge project.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) and I have taken over the APPG for the Celtic sea from the previous Member for North Devon and my predecessor in Truro and Falmouth, who did a lot of good work on it. It is brilliant to be able to take that work forward as fast as we can. The social value of this will be huge. I will emphasise again and again how important it is that we get there with the jobs and the supply chain and in bringing in some of that fabrication, if we can, such as the manufacturing, the operations and the maintenance, so that we do not have to tow things across the sea.

The clean industry bonus that the Minister spoke about is brilliant, but I want to emphasise how important the contracts for difference will be. They can be used and ringfenced to try to push forward some of the test and demo models; we will have the capacity to do that, if they are used properly to take forward the stepping stone projects. I was really pleased to hear what he said about ports. Our ports are ready to build, for so many reasons; floating offshore wind is one of them, but there are many others. The port task and finish group will be so important, as will having national and regional strategies for how our ports will work together.

On the supply chain and the workforce, I want to emphasise again the possibility of using contract clauses in the auction rounds. We are able to do that, despite World Trade Organisation rules, and perhaps we should think again about the option fees and how they could be ploughed back into areas to build the supply chain and stimulate local operations, assembly and fabrication.

I am very pleased to hear about the discussions with NESO and GB Energy, because the grid has been holding back so many projects across the country. It seems that those projects have been put in chronological order, rather than order of merit or importance. It is good that NESO is looking again at that. A completion date of 2037 for one of the projects was just crazy—we cannot be doing that. It has to change.

To finish—I certainly have not gone on for 27 minutes—I will say that we really need a unified strategy. The hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) was right about bringing people with us, including our fishers and environmentalists. There is huge space in the ocean for all of this to be done successfully, but it really needs championing and leading.

I accept the point about how politically dispersed we are in the south-west compared with regions such as Scotland, which has a national Government who can work with the UK Government. We do not have that in the south-west; we have councils and we have Wales, which is a devolved nation. It is harder to put everything together in one place, and various organisations, such as Celtic Sea Power and the new Cornwall FLOW Commission, are starting to do that, but leadership will be so crucial as we move forward. Finding out where that will come from—whether it is national leadership or regional leadership—will be a very important function of what we do going forward.

I thank you for your time, Mr Efford, and I thank all hon. Members for participating in today’s debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Michael Shanks]

Batteries will play an important role in our energy mix in the short duration storage that we need. We will continue to look at whether the regulatory arrangements are sufficient. Obviously, we want all the applications to be for safe projects. The regulations are in place to ensure that. If we need to do any more work, we will happily look at that.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

We had a very successful all-party group meeting last week on floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. I know the Minister is supportive and ask him to consider mechanisms such as ringfencing contracts for difference and investment in ports to kickstart the investment in the Celtic sea.

[Michael Shanks]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the important potential of the Celtic sea in our green energy transition. I will be in Wales tomorrow to speak at a green energy conference on exactly that question. There is huge potential in floating offshore wind. We want to bring the manufacturing jobs in the supply chain to this country as well, which is why we launched today our clean industry bonus to bring that investment here to build the factories of the future and deliver the good, clean jobs of the future.

Great British Energy Bill

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 29th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dave Doogan]

Well, indeed.

Will the Minister advise us whether we are talking about GB electricity or GB energy? I would be keen to know what investments and ambition this supposedly state-owned company—I have to grit my teeth when I say that, because it is actually little more than a trading fund—will be involved in? Will it be involved in carbon capture, utilisation and storage? Will it be involved in attenuated hydro? Will it be involved in pumped storage, geothermal or hydrogen? What are the limits of GB Energy? That is not in the Bill, and we do not understand what it will deliver. As other hon. Members have asked, what is the Government’s ambition on GB Energy when it comes to Grangemouth? Is it just limited to the common or garden production of electricity?

I will not vote with the Government on the Bill. I do not want to condemn it as an election prop that is now desperately looking for some sort of function—I hope it amounts to more than that—but I will vote for the amendments, and so will my colleagues, to try to make some sense of the Bill.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Bill’s job is to set up a new and unique public energy company, to work within the clear objects set out in clause 3(2)—not simply as an investment bank, but as part of a developing strategy for renewables across the UK.

Cornwall, where I am from, is set to benefit hugely from the investment from GB Energy into unblocking floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea, which will create jobs. Cornwall was post-industrial a long time ago, and we need the kind of investment that GB Energy can bring. We also have a strong local area energy plan, which is an integral part of Cornwall’s renewable energy offer. It has co-operative, community and local authority energy as part of that plan, and as a Co-operative MP I support the local power plan that the Government are proposing, which will be part of GB Energy. We could have partnerships for deep geothermal energy on council land, which would bring potential for partnerships with local authorities and others. In Cornwall we have had numerous community energy schemes, such as the one in Ladock at the end of last Labour Government, before the Conservatives cut the schemes and the feed-in tariffs. We could invest in infrastructure with GB Energy, in partnership with the Crown Estate, for the cables, the grid and, potentially, even the ports.

The Bill offers a huge opportunity. There is so much that GB Energy can do in future as part of a developing strategy to secure clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as it says in the Bill. As its ambitions and horizons expand, in partnership with the Crown Estate and others, so too must its object and its strategy be able to expand.

[Sammy Wilson]

I rise to support amendments 6 and 8. The Bill was promised in order to do a number of things. First, it was to reduce the cost of energy to consumers—during the election, the Government gave a specific promise that the reduction this year would be £300 per household. As others have said, and as the Government have accepted, that will not be delivered. That is not a great start. Secondly, it was going to deliver a certain number of jobs. Thirdly, it was going to deliver sustainable and clean energy, and energy security. The Government could argue that these things are in the Bill’s strategic objectives and priorities, but they are not. I do not believe that any of those things can be achieved, given the net zero strategy that we are pursuing.

Let us take the first claim: that costs for consumers would come down. We know that they will not come down this year, and given what needs to be done to deliver the strategy, huge costs will be imposed on consumers. We will turn our backs on a lot of the hard plans we already have in place, even though they are not defunct. We are going to build new power sources. Whether they are built by the state or by power companies, capital expenditure will be involved, and there will be a return on that capital. Who will give the return on that capital to the companies? It will be the consumers. We are going to build many of these power sources away from where people live, because the open areas for wind or solar are not beside centres of population.

We already know that putting in a totally new network will require a huge expenditure of billions—indeed, some have mentioned it here today. That will be costly and controversial. I have listened to Members today saying, “Oh, to ensure the lights are turned on and there is a supply of energy, my constituents will be quite happy to have huge pylons erected in their back gardens or down beside their houses.” Of course they won’t; it will be controversial. That is why the Government will have to change the planning system, too.

Renewable Energy: Cornwall

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Valerie Vaz (in the Chair)]

I will call Jayne Kirkham to move the motion and then the Minister to respond. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for a 30-minute debate.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the development of renewable energy in Cornwall.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. To achieve net zero by 2030, Britain needs Cornwall. If I get anything across in the next 15 minutes, I want everyone in this room to leave with full knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the vast and unique scale of the opportunity in Cornwall for a large-scale, thriving renewable energy sector that creates skilled jobs, brings social value to local people and generates clean energy, helping us to meet that 2030 target. It is a challenge that will require both hands to grasp, but that does not faze the people of Cornwall, who have known a rich industrial past and do not need convincing of the positives of a new industrial future.

Our riches are plentiful and unique. They are buried under our rock, under the waves that surround our 400 miles of coast, in our harsh, whistling south-westerly winds and from our come-and-go solar rays. Harnessing those riches has not always been easy, but if industrialism literally runs through the Cornish landscape, in the tin-rich veins that pass through our granite, resourcefulness runs through the blood of the Cornish. Our geography and landscape are unique and fundamental to our potential. We are surrounded on three sides by the sea, in particular the Celtic sea, which has a great water depth—Falmouth is the third deepest harbour in the world. We are sitting on globally significant mineral deposits, and our granite holds the heat of geothermal energy.

Around 37% of Cornwall’s electricity is currently generated from renewable sources, and the renewable sector already exists here: it is cutting-edge, thriving and leads the way nationally and internationally. But it is nowhere near the scale that we need to make the most of the opportunities that exist.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank the hon. Lady for bringing forward this debate. As she has outlined, it is clear that we need Cornwall to achieve net zero. But it is also worth remembering that the Secretary of State said in the Chamber that this is an object for every part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Many other constituencies need to contribute as well. The hon. Lady puts forward Cornwall; will she also remember other parts of the United Kingdom?

[Jayne Kirkham]

The hon. Gentleman is quite correct. My point is that Cornwall has some catching up to do with other parts of the country, but I am aware that other parts of the UK are in the same situation.

The Secretaries of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and for the Department for Business and Trade visited my constituency and that of my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon), earlier this year, and met businesses with solutions in the marine, geo, tidal and wind spheres. The breadth of the innovation in Cornwall is huge. However, the sector needs investment along with the ambition and determination, and a long-term strategy from Government to make that vision a reality.

Under the previous Government, there was a de facto ban on onshore wind. Of planning applications for onshore wind turbines over 150 kW in Cornwall since January 2015, only one was successful in planning and has since become operational. I am very pleased that one of the first things this Government did was to end that ban on onshore wind. Community energy projects did not receive much support from the previous Government either. The rural community energy fund was only open from 2019 to 2022, and there were no new funding sources for urban community energy projects after that, except from local government.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and for the case she is making today. I fully endorse everything she has said. She mentioned the previous Government’s effective ban on onshore wind: does she agree that the Conservative Government also scrapped sustainable homes regulations and other regulations, setting us back many years? We have a lot of time to make up. In Cornwall especially, there is significant enthusiasm to accelerate the pace so that we can become the green peninsula and be recognised for that throughout the UK.

[Jayne Kirkham]

I thank the hon. Member. That is true particularly around standards on homes, where our local solutions for ground source heating could have been made more of in the past and have obviously now been delayed for that reason.

The feed-in tariffs introduced by the previous Labour Government were reduced several times by the last Government and then finally ended in 2019. Despite that, the community energy sector is resilient and has continued to grow. In my constituency, Ladock won the low carbon communities challenge, and Low Carbon Ladock was given £500,000 under one of the last Governments, which it invested in solar panels on homes, biomass boilers, and ground-source and air-source heat systems. It has been able to put the profits into things for the community, such as safer school crossings, playing fields and more renewables.

The current state of play in Cornwall is that there are 104 wind turbines, 88 solar projects and two operational geothermal sites. Twenty-two projects have been granted planning permission in 2023-24 to date, including one geothermal, one onshore wind, eight battery and 12 solar photovoltaic projects. A further 22 projects have submitted planning applications in 2023-24, three of which are geothermal, four onshore wind, six battery and nine solar.

[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the time to act in Cornwall is right now? We have the US State Department, which is very interested in our renewable opportunities, and representatives from France coming to Cornwall. It would be a crying shame if our Government did not use the advantages available to make Cornwall a renewable energies cluster.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jayne Kirkham]

I agree that the opportunities are vast. We have all heard incredible enthusiasm from the Secretary of State for DESNZ in particular about grasping those opportunities for Cornwall with both hands. I am pleased that that will hopefully happen.

We already know and recognise the potential for wind and solar in Cornwall. The Duchy benefits from regular south-westerly winds, which would complement those in other parts of the country. Solar has its place as well. Much of it in my constituency at present is comprised of large solar farms that cluster around the spot where the power supply is broken down into smaller distribution networks. That is only halfway down Cornwall at Indian Queens. The community benefits of those schemes are mixed, and developers have tended to focus on agricultural land that has previously been used for crops—grade 3b land, which is used for potatoes, cauliflowers and daffodils among other things.

We have geothermal solutions as well, both grid-connected with contracts for difference in place and planning permissions, such as for Geothermal Engineering Ltd, and offgrid, such as Kensa heat pumps, which I mentioned earlier. At present, there are two deep geothermal wells with the potential for three more on council farms. Geothermal is a base source producing energy day and night, and whichever way the wind blows, and the 190° water that comes out of the wells has a great scope to heat homes.

It is worth noting that there is significant Cornish capability for developing tidal streams in the UK, Europe and beyond, such as Inyanga Marine Energy Group in my constituency. There is rising demand for clean energy from critical industries such as the tech metals industry and from new communities in my constituency, such as the build of Langarth garden village.

Cornwall is blessed to have resources of tin, lithium and geothermal heat that are simply not available anywhere else. Tin is used in the manufacture of virtually every single electrical device that we use, and it is crucial to our transition to a fossil-free economy. Demand for tin over the past decade or so has driven prices even higher —so much so that is now commercially viable to reopen some of our historical mines. Investment is already coming into Cornwall, most demonstrably at South Crofty mine, where pumping out water from the flooded mine chamber is already well underway, and that of course uses an awful lot of energy.

Lithium, which is a vital component of electric vehicle batteries, is another critical mineral that we have in abundance in Cornwall. We currently import 100% of our lithium, and yet Cornwall has the largest lithium deposits in Europe. We have enough to extract 50,000 tonnes per year. Those critical minerals are currently imported from east Asia and Latin America, where they are mined in a hugely damaging way. The process in Cornwall is completely different. There is a great story to tell here: we have a way to feed the new battery factory in Somerset and to give a shot in the arm to our automotive industry without being reliant on foreign imports in a more dangerous geopolitical environment.

Floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea is the next frontier in the UK’s clean energy transition. We are positioned to unlock up to 4 GW of power by 2035, which is enough to power 4 million homes. There are huge opportunities here for Cornwall, as the Celtic sea is all around us. The ambition to put floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea, where it would complement other offshore arrays, and the opportunities that would arise from it for Cornwall to expand supply chains, the economy and the number of good, skilled jobs are vast.

However, to be brutal, ambition is so far all that it is. Test and demonstration models are planned and ready to go—smaller, non-commercial pilot projects that prove the technology works to give confidence to investors— but the most ready is stalled by too low a price from previous contracts for difference rounds, while others are stalled by planning issues.

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

We know the Cornish economy to be more dependent on small and medium-sized enterprises than elsewhere in the UK; the same is true of the supply chain for our great, burgeoning renewable energy industry. Does my hon. Friend agree that the organs of industrial strategy must be attuned to the need for building a supply chain based on those SMEs and the very specific needs of those growth businesses?

[Jayne Kirkham]

Absolutely—scaling up and providing the skills that are required need to be done extremely quickly. It is a race against time to remove the barriers and kick-start those projects; then, the Crown Estate, the Government and GB Energy must work together to provide a feasible timeline of contracts for difference and leasing rounds, as well as doing the groundwork by investing in the surveys and the infrastructure, such as cabling and the grid, so that investors will come on board.

Our Cornish ports and harbours, such as Falmouth, are well placed to support floating offshore wind, with well-established marine engineering solutions, servicing, assembly and maintenance. They also have a huge role to play in decarbonising shipping and defence.

This Government have already ended the de facto ban on onshore wind, and have plans for doubling onshore wind, trebling solar and quadrupling offshore wind, as well as reforming the planning system. With Cornish Lithium’s Hard Rock plant recently designated a nationally significant site of strategic infrastructure, planning could be streamlined and fast-tracked. GB Energy has been working with the Crown Estate to invest in the infrastructure that will make floating offshore wind happen and provide the certainty to draw in investment. Our new local power plan will provide £3.3 billion for grants and loans for those local energy projects—the biggest expansion in community-owned energy in history. This will enable communities to own—in the realest sense—the energy they rely on and allow local authorities, such as Cornwall, to exploit the energy sources on our doorstep, like the geothermal assets on council land that could be heating homes.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is giving an excellent speech in which she is once again standing up for her communities and clean power. Does she agree that the cost of living crisis—the worst in a generation, driven by the energy shock—will cast a long shadow for as long as we remain exposed to fossil fuels, and that we must embrace British-based nuclear and Cornwall renewables? The faster we go, the more secure we become. On the point about ground source heat pumps, can she say a little about Kensa, which manufactures heat pumps in Cornwall? I was privileged to see its heat pumps last week at the Sutton Dwellings in Chelsea. They are an amazing technology.

[Jayne Kirkham]

Yes, of course. I thank my hon. Friend for drawing attention to that business, which is on the edge of my constituency. I agree that we have to embrace all sorts of energy sources—the urgency is definitely there. Kensa is one of the largest manufacturers of ground source heat pumps in Europe, but it is currently stymied by regulation and the future homes standard. Hopefully it will be able to grow in the future.

Big challenges still remain. We need to get ready for floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea; there is a risk of places such as Cornwall losing out if we are not prepared. The grid network unites renewables businesses in Cornwall because of the capacity of the distribution network, which is a key barrier and constraint to growth. There is a lack of capacity and a slow speed, and the main grid stops at Indian Queens, which is only half-way into Cornwall. We need to upgrade those transmission and distribution networks. There are significant delays to accessing grid connections for projects such as onshore charging, the energy required by the potential new Kensa factory, and tin and lithium mining.

The National Energy System Operator is newly nationalised. There will be a connections action plan to decrease the time it takes to get connected to the grid. We will need to front-load the work, do the surveys, and lay the cables to plug in all those power sources. There is currently no strategic national plan for that infrastructure.

Vital plans to lay floating offshore wind cables, and the previous Government’s miserly £160 million FLOWMIS—the floating offshore wind manufacturing investment scheme—fund for ports, were awarded with no national strategy in place. The current Government has a £1.8 billion ports fund, which is welcome. However, the French Government have just put €900 million into the port of Brest—that is the equivalent of half our entire national ports fund for the next ten years invested in just one French port. We need a coherent plan for our ports.

One of the test and demonstration models is being held up by planning, as are other projects. We need to look at planning, as well as at the huge number of skilled workers who are needed but lacking for renewables in the energy sector and to retrofit for the warm homes plan.

The Crown Estate has partnered with Falmouth marine school to pay for children aged 14 to 16 from Helston community college to receive level 2 engineering training in the sphere of offshore wind. That is a pilot; there is no ongoing funding. It is great, but it will not address the massive skills gap. We need a huge scale-up. We have great local further education providers—Truro and Penwith college and Cornwall college—but they need the ability to scale up in conjunction with the industry.

There is no national oversight of the map around the country of floating offshore wind for the future, no timescale for “test and demos”, and no pipeline of contracts with the Crown Estate to build the Celtic sea out so that the investors have certainty. We can use contractual tie-ins with the lease, and we can use procurement, but national coordinated action is needed now. We also need new domestic production targets for critical minerals.

We are ready to be the multi-renewable power production capital of the UK. It is a vision of vast scale, which is not without challenges, but it shows that Cornwall is crucial because of what we offer, rather than what we need. It is time for us to step up and become the multi-renewable power production capital of the UK.

Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Westminster Hall

[Mr MacDonald]

I wholeheartedly agree. It should be the same for the transmission lines and the interceptors, for pumped storage and battery—really, the whole infra- structure of producing renewables.

So where is the 5% going to come from? It is really important that investors do not suffer from swings in British policy, and that they continue to invest in UK energy infrastructure. It is key that this increase is passed on to all consumers in the UK as part of a green tariff. My informed opinion is that paying that 5% to impacted communities would translate to about a 1.25% increase in electricity prices in Britain.

What should a council that receives that substantial amount of money use it for? Here are three examples of what has been happening already. One community fund near me gives £1,000 to each of the properties in the community. If 1,000 properties were given £1,000 each, that would be £1 million. Perhaps the locals managing the fund would allocate it to households that earn less than the UK median household income of £34,500. In any case, at a time of winter fuel allowance cuts, that would be most welcome. A second option is for the community to use the money to build affordable housing, and I know of a third community that injects money into its local care sector, for care homes.

Let me plagiarise the Highland council report in order to provide some context. In 2023, in the highlands, local communities received approximately £9 million. That is below the expected commitment based on Crown Estate Scotland’s guidelines, which suggest that developers should contribute £5,000 per megawatt, equating to £13.9 million. The total income from wind generation in the highlands for 2023 was estimated to be around £590 million. That calculation is based on a potential production of 11.8 GW. If all renewables—including hydro, offshore wind and pumped storage—were included, the benefit increased to 5%, and the amount of renewable energy doubled by 2030 to 22 GW, which is likely, then the community benefit would rise well above £50 million per year. That is a heck of a lot of money to highland rural communities. What would that be across the UK? £500 million a year? £1 billion? £5 billion over 10 years? This is a proper levelling-up fund for rural communities.

It was recently announced that two cancer wards on the island of Lewis in the Hebrides will share £4.5 million from a single offshore wind farm. That shows what can be achieved.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the hon. Member agree that when we are looking at scaling up wind—floating offshore wind, for example, which will benefit Scotland and Cornwall, where I am from—we could look more closely at contracts for difference, and the licences and leases with the Crown Estate, in order to embed social value in them on a large scale and generate benefits such as apprenticeships or the building up of local supply chains? There are exemptions to the World Trade Organisation rules and so on, and we could manage to do that in quite a substantial way.

[Mr MacDonald]

I was a Highland councillor for quite a few years and sat on the planning committee. We heard application after application promising a large number of jobs and a large amount of local buying, yet we did not see that, but I do think we need to tighten up a great deal what is being offered in all the different aspects of renewables.

I have been looking at the situation overseas. In Denmark, new renewables projects must offer at least 20% ownership of their overall venture to local residents. In Germany, there is a local tax on renewables. In Heligoland, an archipelago in the North sea, three offshore wind farms were built in the mid-2010s, and the tax revenue taken in by the municipality was €22 million in 2016 alone. In Ireland, the contribution to community benefit fund is to be set at €2 per megawatt-hour of generation.

Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

I welcome the hon. Member to the House. We have all kinds of projects in place to encourage business to decarbonise; indeed, our drive for clean power by 2030 is part of ensuring that we decarbonise the electricity system to help businesses to be part of the decarbonisation journey. However, I just do not recognise the picture that he paints—that this proposal is somehow a disincentive for companies. I hear lots of businesses asking how they are going to exist, frankly, in a decarbonised world. What is the answer, for example, for the cement industry in a decarbonised world? That is why CCS is so vital.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am so pleased to be part of a new era of clean energy investment, with carbon capture in the north-east and the very successful recent renewables auction. The Secretary of State has been to see our critical minerals, floating offshore wind potential and geothermal potential in Cornwall. Will he please confirm that the industrial strategy and renewables will be truly UK-wide and will span from Scotland and the north-east down to the west and Cornwall, with a clear pipeline of investment opportunities in order to give certainty to developers in, for example, floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea?

[Ed Miliband]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As I have said before in the House, Cornwall has a crucial role to play in our clean energy future. She is a brilliant champion for Cornwall and for floating wind. As she says, there is huge opportunity, and we look forward to working with her to make it happen.

Great British Energy Bill

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison), whose experience and passion will be of great benefit to both his constituents and his local hospital, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran), who will be a very worthy successor to those suffragettes.

It is a real honour and a privilege to be standing here as the MP for Truro and Falmouth. I arrived in Cornwall quite by accident nearly 20 years ago, having been swept off my feet by a naval pilot who tempted me away from life as a London trade union lawyer, with images of beaches and sunsets. He flew search and rescue helicopters at Culdrose naval station. Unfortunately, as is often the case, our military marriage was short, and I was left as a single mum with a small son. But I chose to stay and bring him up in Cornwall, and it is very much our home. Becoming a single parent was sudden and difficult, but I was fortunate. I benefited from the opportunities offered by the last Labour Government and was able to get back on my feet. I retrained and took a job as a teaching assistant working in a local secondary school for seven years, first in special educational needs and later as an unqualified teacher, which shows the journey that education has been on.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Cherilyn Mackrory. She served in a number of roles in this place; she showed her passion for the environment in her work on the Environmental Audit Committee and as chair of the ocean conservation all-party parliamentary group. She also drew on her own personal experience to help others. She did a huge amount to shape the women’s health strategy and maternity safety awareness, and was integral in introducing the new pregnancy loss certificate. Both Cherilyn and her predecessor, Sarah Newton, worked to secure a new women and children’s unit at Treliske hospital in Truro, one of the previous Government’s 40 new hospitals or units. It is desperately needed and a long time coming. I had my son in the existing unit nearly 19 years ago, and the building was not fit for purpose then. I really want to ensure its speedy completion.

Truro and Falmouth has existed as a constituency only since 2010. It sits in the middle of the Duchy of Cornwall, spreading from Falmouth on the south coast to Crantock on the north coast. Falmouth is my home, and where I have sat as a councillor for the past six years. It is a vibrant and welcoming town enveloped by the ocean. Falmouth has played its part in the history of Great Britain. In the late 1600s, the town was appointed the Royal Mail packet station, receiving and sending mail and messages all around the globe, making Falmouth —for 150 years at least—the information superhighway of the British empire.

However, Falmouth is more than its seafaring past. We still have two splendid castles, Pendennis and St Mawes, protecting the entrance to the Carrick Roads, but the constituency is also the site of Falmouth University, built on the legacy of the famous art school that is still found on Woodlane, but now anchored across the border in the state-of-the-art Tremough campus in Penryn, which it shares with the University of Exeter. The area brims with creatives, scientists and engineers—whom Dawn French, the university’s chancellor, described as “enterprising dreamers”.

If we follow the River Fal upwards, we reach Truro, Cornwall’s capital and only city, with its impressive cathedral and award-winning theatre Hall for Cornwall. It has Lys Kernow, the home of Cornwall Council, as well as Treliske, the acute hospital. The constituency also has a large rural element, with an array of beautiful villages and areas such as the Roseland peninsula, where farming and fishing are still vital industries.

When researching for this speech, I was struck by the words in the maiden speech of one of Cornwall’s most well known and loved Members of Parliament, David Penhaligon. Exactly 50 years ago in this House, he referred to an economy that relies on tourism, traffic conditions in the summer months that strangle much of the industry that keeps the place going for the rest of the year, tremendous pressure on hospital services, sewage problems, pressure on housing, the problem of summer lets and the lowest average wage in Britain. I am pleased that the measures in this Government’s programme—a real living wage, the water Bill, devolution and renters rights—will help to address some of those issues, but it is shocking that many of the issues that he mentioned then are, sadly, still very much in evidence today, half a century on. For a place on the edge of the map, Cornwall is too often at the edge of our thoughts in this place. Like Penhaligon, I believe that Cornwall, with its proud and independent heritage, deserves better.

Turning to the topic of this debate, there is so much to be excited by. As well as Cornwall’s potential for onshore wind, we have 20% of Europe’s requirement for critical minerals and geothermal energy beneath our feet, buried in our granite. We only have to look at a horizon dotted with the ruins of engine houses to know that the people of Cornwall are more than happy to dig for their treasure. Falmouth is a town with its face turned to the sea. The port still has a very busy harbour and docks, which have businesses servicing both military and commercial ships, as well as hosting cruise and leisure vessels. But there is potential for so much more, and the port of Falmouth is poised to take advantages of a new generation of offshore wind production in the Celtic sea. With the support of the new energy company GB Energy, the £1.8 billion ports fund and investment in the skills training we so desperately need, our young people will be able to grasp with both hands the well-paid jobs of the future, while securing our own home-grown energy and facing down the challenge of climate change—a challenge that is so important to a place like Cornwall, which stares the impacts of the changing climate in the face every day. We were the first large rural authority to declare a climate emergency and the 2030 net zero target. Now, we will play our part in getting the country to meet a similarly ambitious target. Falmouth’s time truly has come again as part of the Government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower.

Truro and Falmouth is the most magical place to live. It well and truly hooked me and my small family, and has become part of me. My journey, despite its ups and downs, has been a charmed and happy one. Truro and Falmouth has given so much to me, and it is overflowing with promise and brilliant, independent-minded enterprising dreamers. I am determined to serve my home as well as it has served me. A bright future lies ahead for it.

Clean Energy Superpower Mission

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Siobhain McDonagh)]

In line with the Cornwall thread, I call Jayne Kirkham.

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

Cornish ports such as Falmouth, which the Secretary of State visited during the campaign, have well-advanced plans to reconfigure to service floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea. Cornish further education providers are keen to gear up to provide specialised courses to support the speedy growth of that industry so that young people in Cornwall have the opportunity to train for those high-skilled jobs of the future, but in the past they have struggled because of a lack of Government support. Will the Secretary of State please confirm that support will be available to ports, businesses and educational establishments in Cornwall, to enable them to plug into the vast opportunities opened up by floating offshore wind in the Celtic sea?