The Government is considering a bonfire of red-tape to tackle delays holding back the West Country’s marine power industry, MPs have heard.
Energy Minister Greg Barker has agreed to an emergency summit against fears that gold-plated regulations are stopping wave energy developers getting into the water.
The sector is vital to transforming the economy of the South West, which was named the UK’s first Marine Energy Park last month. Mr Barker yesterday re-iterated his belief that the South West could become the marine equivalent of Silicon Valley, the California technology community that gave birth to Apple, Microsoft and Google.
Ministers believe the Marine Energy Park will drive the creation of 5,000 jobs in the sector in the region by 2017 – a tenfold increase on today.
In the Commons, Mr Barker was urged to intervene to get bureaucrats “off the back” of developers anxious to test their devices off the coast of Devon and Cornwall.
Mr Barker said in the Westminster Hall debate:
“I am not complacent about the need to bring down more barriers impeding developers and drive the sector forward.”
West Country MP George Eustice, who secured the debate, told fellow Members that Britain should adopt a lighter approach to licensing of offshore testing pioneered in Norway.
Developers in Scandinavia are afforded considerable dispensation for small test sites, while in the UK they face “onerous” regulations from the Crown Estate and the Marine Management Organisation quango, he said.
“If we are to make this Marine Energy Park work I really do think a key component of that is dismantling the barriers standing in the way of these marine energy developers,” said Mr Eustice, Tory MP for Camborne and Redruth, whose constituency includes the Wave Hub energy terminal off the Cornish coast.
“These are people taking tremendous risks to pioneer the industry – sometimes investing tens of millions of pounds to develop this technology – the very least we can do as government in control of these agencies is make sure these agencies get off people’s backs and allow them to get ahead.”
Mr Barker agreed to meet Mr Eustice and Wave Hub bosses to “thrash out the details” over red tape. The pledge came amid concern at the top level of Government that Brussels environmental edicts are holding back job growth in the UK.
Cornwall and Devon stand to reap a massive jobs boost from harnessing the power of waves and tides as Marine Energy Park status means the region will be the sector’s focal point in the UK.
The “virtual” marine park, spread across sites in Devon, Cornwall and Bristol, could see energy devices developed in the region exported to China and South America.
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