Britain’s new Labour government on Thursday lays out its flagship green energy infrastructure plan to parliament, as it also presents a multi-billion-pound energy partnership with the royal family’s holdings company.
The legislation will establish a publicly owned body called Great British Energy, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to spearhead funding in renewable energy projects as the UK weans itself off fossil fuels.
His government has allocated £8.3 billion of public money over the next five years as Labour aims to bring down the price of energy by reducing reliance on foreign imports of oil and gas.
The body will also seek to attract private investment, and the government announced a partnership with the Crown Estate that aims to leverage private investment of £60 billion.
The Crown Estate is the royal family’s land and property holdings.
It is an independently run business whose profits go to the government, which passes on a small portion to the monarchy to support official duties of the royal family.
The Crown Estate’s portfolio includes commercial and retail properties, including prime locations in central London, as well as rural and coastal land across the country, and the waters around England and Wales.
That makes it one of Europe’s biggest property empires, with a huge commercial potential in developing offshore wind power generation.
Profit from the Crown Estate more than doubled last year to a record £1.1 billion, driven by a short-term boost from offshore wind farms, according to annual accounts published on Wednesday.
Last week, the new Labour government announced plans to widen the investment powers of the Crown Estate, giving it more scope to borrow for investments including offshore wind projects.
The government said that in doing so, 20 to 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind would be created by the end of the decade.
It has also proposed boosting investment in sustainable aviation fuel plants across the country.
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