Labour would invest £3.5bn in Merseyside tidal power project

A Labour government would invest in a £3.5bn tidal power project on Merseyside, leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC. Making the announcement on a visit to Liverpool, Mr Corbyn said it would tackle the north-south divide and address climate change.

The party said the project would be funded out of existing commitments set out in their 2017 manifesto, while the BBC said that it had 'approached the government for a comment on the project's funding'.

The plan is being championed by Steve Rotheram, the Labour mayor of Liverpool City Region, who believes the tidal barrage could generate 1GW of electricity — more than the 270 existing wind turbines in the Irish Sea, off the coast of Liverpool. Plans for a tidal project, put on hold in 2011, were revived by the Liverpool City Region Mayor in 2017. Efforts to generate energy from the tides have had a chequered history in the UK, with plans to build a Severn Barrage near Bristol and a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay still awaiting approval.

Back in 2018, when this was a £1.5bn project, shadow chancellor John McDonnell also supported the scheme, then expected to produce 1% of UK’s electricity needs, noted the FT.