Foreign investors in UK renewables ‘spooked by Brexit’

A Labour MP has warned that European investors have been put off renewable projects in the UK due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

Anna McMorrin, the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on climate change, told a fringe meeting at the party conference in Brighton that she had dealt with German, Italian and Swedish investors in renewable projects when advising the Welsh Assembly before being elected as an MP in 2017.

She said: “Brexit has turned them off and they don’t want to invest because they don’t know what the future is going to be, so they are going to South America: it’s clearly getting in the way.”

More broadly, the Cardiff North MP said that the EU has pushed the UK to up its game in terms of meeting its climate commitments, particularly on renewable energy.

However Chris Hulatt, a founder of Octopus, said overseas investors still have an appetite for UK renewables, pointing to recent interest by South Korean pension funds in British projects.

“These funds had been looking at the UK as a long-term investment over a 30 year period.

“They might not want to buy a central London office block, but they’re not stopping investment in renewables.”

McMorrin also criticised the pace of action across the political spectrum on tackling climate change, including by her own party.

She said: “We haven’t seen enough transformational change either in our own country or internationally. We absolutely do need to see a shift in how economy and investment works.

“We are not dong enough in my own party and the government is not doing anywhere near enough.”

Nathan Bennett, senior public affairs manager at RenewableUK, said allowing all onshore wind projects to access support through the Contract for Difference auction could cut up to £6 per MW hour from the cost of electricity produced by such projects. That in turn could cut household electricity bills by £50 per annum, he said.