Crown Estate: Wales

Lord Swire Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

The Crown Estate and the Government are particularly concerned about ensuring that we have investment in local supply chains, and we are going along with that in whatever we are doing. For example, as I have said, this £50 million is going to be invested in the supply chain accelerator. We are going to ensure that some of the money that will be generated from offshore wind goes into local communities. We are well aware of the issues, but we need to focus on the fact that we are heading in the right direction as far as green energy development is concerned.

[Lord Swire (Con)]

My Lords, when the Crown Estate had this windfall from its offshore wind bonanza, it was reputed to have said that it wanted a lot of the money to go towards good causes. Given that this will mean an explosion of overhead power lines in Wales and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, what discussions have the Government had with the Crown Estate about spending some of that bonanza on, where possible, burying these power lines?

[Lord Wilson of Sedgefield (Lab)]

The Government’s approach to burying these cables underground is well known, really, because, essentially, where we can do it, we will, in order to protect the local area. It is cheaper to put them overhead, but even if you bury them, there is still a lot of disruption to the local area with the kind of access you need to the cables themselves. It is not actually the answer to all our concerns. We know that we need to think about how we develop these pylons and whether we should lay the cables under the ground, but to do that is not the answer in all cases.