Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she is taking steps to secure private investment to develop an offshore energy grid in the East of England.

Reinforcement of the electricity network is being delivered through a range of approaches, including upgrades to existing infrastructure, building innovative offshore transmission routes, undergrounded new cabling in protected areas and, where necessary building new overhead lines. Ofgem’s regulatory frameworks are designed to encourage anticipatory investment into the grid whether on or offshore and, through the Energy Act 2023, we enabled competitions in electricity networks, opening this market to new parties for the first time.