The startup board for Great British Energy will have its first meeting today in Aberdeen to discuss how to scale up the company and ‘kickstart’ investments.
Energy minister Michael Shanks, along with GB Energy’s startup chair Juergen Maier and interim CEO Dan McGrail, will convene the meeting to discuss the state-owned company’s next steps and how it will build up an investment portfolio.
The startup board was appointed in January this year, with McGrail’s appointment made about a month later.
Great British Energy, established by the government as an energy company ‘owned by the British people, for the British people’, will own and invest in clean energy projects across the UK, backed by £8.3 billion provided by the government up to 2030.
Recent rumours suggested that the amount of funding allocated to the company could be cut. A government spokesperson told Current±: “We are fully committed to GB Energy, which is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and to ensure homes are cheaper and cleaner to run.”
According to the government, GB Energy has already begun engaging with the market on potential collaborations, but no more information is available on this. So far, the energy company has announced partnerships with the Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland.
According to startup chair Maier: “We are already engaging with industry on exciting investment opportunities so we can hit the ground running once Great British Energy is fully established.
Together we will back British innovation and support the creation of thousands of jobs in clean energy projects and their supply chains in the North East of Scotland alone.”
Speeding up planning approvals
The UK chancellor will today meet with regulators in Downing Street to unveil a ‘radical shakeup’ to cut red tape as part of the government’s Plan for Change.
The Treasury says that the changes will cut costly red tape, including guidance on protecting bat habitats, that goes beyond legal requirements and cost businesses money, as well as slowing planning decisions for major infrastructure projects.
Rachel Reeves, chancellor of the exchequer, will lay out plans to “crack down on complexity” in the UK regulatory system for regulators. She said: “Today we are taking further action to free businesses from the shackles of regulation. By cutting red tape and creating a more effective system, we will boost investment, create jobs and put more money into working people’s pockets.”
The meeting at Downing Street follows measures introduced in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to speed up the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime, streamlining the consultation requirements and updating the policies against which infrastructure applications are assessed every five years.
The government has also changed how decisions on NSIPs can be challenged, reducing the number of times ‘meritless’ cases can be brought against a project from three to one.
