Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Charles Hendry]

The right hon. Gentleman put it correctly in his own blog, when he said:

“In an ideal world, we would all like to see the scheme that has the potential to provide the maximum amount of renewable energy and the least environmental impact in other ways”.

But that might not be possible. We have looked at the costs, the environmental consequences, the benefits it would bring, the alternative schemes and the resulting diversion of capital, and we have decided that other tidal mechanisms would be better.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

What role did the environmental impact assessment have in the final decision not to proceed, and what lessons can be learned from this process?

[Charles Hendry]

It was part of the process, but it was not the whole process. We have also looked very carefully at the costs: the main barrage would cost more than £30 billion. We looked at the amount of subsidy that would require now, and believed that it was not the right way forward.