Leaders hope for good news soon on River Mersey tidal barrage to power homes and create jobs

Since taking up his post in 2017, a tidal barrage has been an ambition of Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram.

His plan is to create a huge piece of infrastructure in the River Mersey, stretching from Liverpool to Wirral, built in order to generate clean and reliable energy from the river for years to come. Leaders believe that energy could power hundreds of thousands of homes and last for 120 years, while the project could create thousands of jobs along the way.It also opens the possibility of a first-ever cycling and pedestrian route over the river between Liverpool and Wirral and could provide a defence against future flooding risks associated with climate change.

On a visit to Liverpool on Wednesday (July 3), Kerry McCarthy MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the department for energy security and net zero, was briefed on the work of the project to date and said the Labour government remained keen to support the scheme. Cllr Anthony Burns, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority cabinet member for net zero, said leaders would continue to press ministers for their backing.

Under fire Chancellor Rachel Reeves was briefed on the project during her visit to the city region in September and further briefing events on Tidal Range have been held including at the Labour Party conference. Initial discussions have been held with Great British Energy, the government’s new entity to promote Mersey Tidal and Tidal range projects in the UK as a route to accelerating clean energy for Net Zero.

Ms McCarthy – who studied at the University of Liverpool – was briefed by Cllr Burns and city region officials on their work towards being carbon neutral. A Climate Emergency was declared by the Combined Authority (CA) in June 2019.

The Minister said: “We’ve got a mission for cleanback by 2030 and then the net zero’s 2050 and we’re open to all forms of renewables that can get us there. The key issue is whether it’s value for money to actually.

“I say as a Bristol MP there’s a huge potential for tidal. As I understand it, ongoing conversations about the details of the scheme and just how it sort of stacks up.

“I know Steve’s (Rotheram) keen to make it happen and we would assess each scheme whether it’s wind solar, tidal, wave energy. It’s just when you get down to funding for a particular scheme, we’ve got to make sure the returns on it are the best use of our money as opposed to putting it all into wind or solar or whatever.

“It’s not directly my portfolio, but my colleagues would be having those ongoing conversations but as I gather from talking to them today, a lot of work’s been done in putting that financial case together so that will be evaluated.”

Cllr Burns said it was important to have full support from all component parts of the City Region. He said: “My job here today was to try and lobby the minister for it, so she can certainly see the benefits of it.

“We’ve had the public consultation, which has been great and trying to get out the message of the importance of it. It’s about clean energy, but it’s all about the jobs and skills and everything else that goes with it.

“We’re getting that message across the government. Of course with running government, there’s a lot of priorities, so we’re just fighting to keep that high on the list so hopefully we’ll have some good news soon.”