The Government has announced its first major partnership between the freshly minted state owned Great British Energy and The Crown Estate.

The partnership will allow the Crown Estate to meet its existing target of up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments reaching seabed lease stage by 2030, and the Government is already legislating to give both Great British Energy and The Crown Estate greater powers, with two Bills being introduced in Parliament this week.

The Crown Estate is currently running one of the world’s largest commercial scale floating wind leasing programmes in the Celtic sea, and the Crown Estate Bill will remove restrictions on its activities and expand its investment powers. The Great British Energy Bill, being introduced in the House of Commons, will support the creation of the new publicly owned company by setting out its objectives and ensuring it has access to necessary finances.

It is hoped that the agreement with The Crown Estate will lead to more investment, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying: “This agreement will drive up to £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.”

The Prime Minister has confirmed that Great British Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and will back energy generation projects in the UK. The agreement with the Crown Estate is only for projects around England and Wales, and discussions with the Scottish Government in Northern Ireland are ongoing.

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