Thank you, Jane [Cooper]. I just want to say how brilliant it is to be here today, it’s a real privilege. I read my old speech from a year ago, about 15 days before the general election, and it holds up reasonably well to history.
I felt an incredible sense of excitement back then about having a chance to be Secretary of State, and today I feel an incredible sense of privilege. One of the reasons I feel that sense of privilege is because of all of you, because of the incredibly inspiring things you are doing for energy security, for jobs, around the country, and to tackle the climate crisis.
I also want to pay tribute to Jane, you are doing an absolutely brilliant job championing this industry – you and the RenewableUK team are truly outstanding.
Can I say at the same time we are delighted to have secured our superstar signing Dan McGrail as interim CEO of Great British Energy – it’s fantastic to have him and Juergen Maier both here, as well as my colleague Michael Shanks, Minister for Energy who many of you will have met and is doing an absolutely brilliant job, and it’s a privilege to work alongside.
As I walked into the conference today and saw the banner ‘Mission: Possible’, I felt a real sense of excitement.
Because when I look around the exhibition hall and this room, I feel that overwhelming sense of possibility, as the slogan suggests.
Huge economic and industrial opportunities for Britain, huge chances to transform our country. Challenges of course, but as I say I am incredibly proud of this industry, and for 5 years we have worked together on a shared agenda.
For energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate.
I think it is an inspiring and exciting vision of a new era of clean energy abundance for Britain, getting off the rollercoaster of fossil fuels – and we’re reminded by geo-political events all the time how important that is.
And at the Spending Review last week we committed to the most significant programme of investment in homegrown clean energy in the UK’s history.
On Tuesday, we announced the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation, creating jobs in Suffolk, Nottinghamshire and across the UK.
On Thursday, investment in kickstarting carbon capture in Aberdeenshire and the Humber.
On Friday, half a billion pounds of funding for Britain’s first hydrogen network to help drive industrial renewal.
And today we go further with a genuinely transformative package of investment in offshore wind supply chains and jobs.
I truly believe we are witnessing the coming of age of Britain’s green industrial revolution as we build this new era.
I think it demonstrates above all what an active and strategic government working in the closest partnership with industry can achieve.
So I want to talk today about the clarity of mission we’re seeking to provide, the way we’re breaking down the barriers to success – barriers you talked a lot with us about when in opposition – the role of catalytic public investment – which is partly about the announcement I’m making today – and then a bit about what I would ask from you as an industry.
First, I know it has been a tough time for the industry.
Offshore wind is not immune from the global economic challenges we have seen in the last few years, many of which remain present today.
My response and my responsibility is to ensure that you have the clarity and certainty you need to make future investment decisions, because I know the biggest enemy of investment is uncertainty.
We want Britain to be a safe haven for investment.
That is why from day one we have offered a clear sense of direction, with our goals to deliver clean power by 2030 and accelerate to net zero across the economy.
Just 6 months after we came to office we published our 2030 Clean Power Action Plan.
Setting out for the first time the different pathways for deployment of different technologies.
Offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, nuclear, batteries, hydrogen, CCUS.
To give developers and investors clarity about the direction of travel.
When we came to office we also took decisions around AR6 to make it a record-breaking auction.
But we have also listened hard to the industry about how we can improve the auction process – particularly for fixed and floating offshore wind.
And we will shortly confirm key decisions for the AR7 auction. I want to say to you very clearly, as far as that decision is concerned and all other decisions, my overriding priority is to give you confidence and certainty because I know these are essential ingredients for you to make the long-term investments we need.
Second, for years clean energy projects have been held back by barriers and blockages.
You told us we needed to deal with them.
So over the last 11 months, that’s what we have gone about doing.
On planning, we lifted the onshore wind ban within 72 hours of coming to office.
We’ve introduced the Planning and Infrastructure Bill – the biggest reform of planning in a generation.
And we’ve sped up planning decisions, including consenting enough clean energy to power the equivalent of almost 2 million homes.
On grid, we’ve ended the first come first served connections queue which wasn’t serving our country well, prioritising the power projects we need.
And we’ve brought forward plans to ensure communities benefit from hosting clean energy infrastructure.
We’re also working with Defra on improving environmental consenting.
On radar, we’ve worked with the Ministry of Defence to resolve funding issues that have plagued this sector for years.
On skills, we’ve backed industry’s skills passport for oil and gas workers.
And set up the Office for Clean Energy Jobs to ensure we have the skilled workforce we need and to do that planning with our colleagues at the Department for Education.
In addressing these long-standing issues, we are trying to break down those barriers, which again get in the way of your investment and try to make progress step by step and demonstrating each day what a mission driven government means.
My observation from the first 11 months in office is having this as one of the Prime Minister’s 5 missions makes all the difference in driving through Whitehall and working with others.
Third, alongside clarity, certainty and breaking down the barriers we are delivering catalytic public investment to secure jobs and supply chains as part of our long-term industrial strategy.
This is the right choice for Britain because we want those jobs, it’s also the right choice for our energy security and resilience – and the right long-term way I believe to deal with some of the pressures the industry faces.
I think it’s fair to say we know that for too long governments have not focused enough on ensuring our success in offshore wind generation leads to the jobs our country needs.
This government is different.
There is a global race for these jobs, and we are determined to create them in Britain.
You told us public investment could unlock funding from the private sector – and you’re right.
With Great British Energy that is what we are committed to do.
And today we are announcing a truly historic partnership between public and private investors.
Hundreds of millions of public funding from Great British Energy crowding in many hundreds of millions more from the offshore wind industry and The Crown Estate.
Enabling us to today announce a total of £1 billion of supply chain funding to bring offshore wind jobs to Britain.
It’s designed, this fund, to turbocharge the brilliant work of the sector’s Industrial Growth Plan to invest in ports and factories, so we make turbine towers, blades, foundations and cables here in the UK.
Helping to drive the clean energy rollout at home and capture a growing export market abroad – including seizing the opportunities of being an early mover in floating offshore wind.
And this is just the start, with Great British Energy bringing together a wider group of public and private investors to build our offshore wind supply chains and I am incredibly excited about the work that Juergen and Dan are doing at GBE.
Today I can also confirm we have released the results of the first Clean Industry Bonus round.
Again here, you told us that the private sector would step up, if we showed the importance of building supply chains here in the UK, and again you were right.
We were delighted by the response of developers to this scheme.
Showing that when government leads with ambition, industry is ready to match it.
We calculate that every pound of public money could unlock up to £17 of private investment.
The Clean Industry Bonus unleashing the potential of billions of private investment in factories and ports from the North East to East Anglia to Scotland.
When we talk about catalytic investment, this is what we mean.
Public investment crowding in, not crowding out, the private capital we need.
And giving you the confidence to build a long-term industrial base for Britain.
So look, these are some of the steps we’re taking. Government doesn’t get everything right, but what we are seeking to do is deliver on the promises we made to you in opposition about how we can work together – a true partnership.
Now often the industry asks me, how can we help you to deliver this mission? Let me just give you a few thoughts on that.
On jobs, you have a crucial role in reversing decades of failure to invest in our industrial communities and creating a new generation of good jobs at decent wages.
You have shown your commitment to building supply chains in Britain.
And my ask of you is to ensure you deliver the 95,000 jobs this industry says it could support in the UK by the end of the decade.
On trade unions, there is important work on union recognition in some renewables companies.
But I want to be clear: this government considers trade unions as an essential part of a modern workplace and economy.
So I ask you to recognise the huge value of partnering with trade unions in all parts of the industry.
And finally, I would say this:
I am one of your biggest champions because I know that this mission is the route to building a more secure energy system that can bring down bills for good.
As we consider the multiple pathways to clean power, my mandate to Chris Stark as head of our 2030 Mission Control, is to deliver at least cost to billpayers and taxpayers and the most economic benefit to the country.
So in AR7, AR8, AR9 and beyond, value for money for billpayers is our priority, recognising that while the market needs to make a return, we also need to deliver a fair price for consumers.
Once again, this must be a partnership between us.
We are doing everything we can, as I have set out, to help the industry continue its strong record in bringing down costs.
And I urge you to continue to drive forward with innovation and competition to deliver for the country.
Let me end with this before we get into questions.
I think over the last 11 months we have shown that Britain is back in the race for the jobs and industries of the future.
And above all we have shown one thing fundamentally, which is we are serious about delivering. When we said it, we meant it. When we said becoming a clean energy superpower would become one of the Prime Minister’s 5 missions, we meant it. I have my regular meetings with the Prime Minister about this issue and he is incredibly inspired by what you are delivering.
What we’re seeking to do is have a plan to deliver.
Clear and consistent leadership.
Breaking down the barriers.
Catalytic public investment.
A true partnership between government, trade unions and industry.
We believe this is how we build the age of clean energy abundance.
This is how we boost our energy independence and bring down bills for families and businesses.
This is how we seize the economic and industrial opportunity of our time.
And this is how we face up to the greatest long-term challenge we face as a country and as a world, the climate crisis.
My final thought is this: of course, the industry faces challenges that I am aware of. Nobody believed this was going to be easy, the kind of transformation we are talking about in our economy and in our energy system.
The thing I feel above all, after 11 months in this role, is more of a sense of optimism about what we can achieve together, more of a sense of optimism that this is the right path for energy security, more of a sense of optimism that this can be the jobs driver of the 21st century for our country.
Going round the country, there’s nothing more inspiring than seeing those jobs being created and the opportunity for young people doing apprenticeships and being part of this industry.
I am more certain than ever this is the right path to tackle the biggest long-term threat to humanity, the climate crisis.
Thank you so much for what you do for our country, thank you so much for your partnership with government.
And I look forward to continuing to work together to do great things in the months and years ahead.
Thank you.