No new UK offshore wind awarded in auction “failure of government”, says IPPR

Responding to the failure of the government's Auction Round 5 to draw any successful bids for offshore wind, Luke Murphy, associate director for energy and climate at IPPR, said:

"This was an avoidable yet deeply harmful failure of government policy and planning.

"The UK will miss out on billions in green investment, cheaper energy bills, and lower emissions as a result, and cement the idea that the UK has somersaulted from a clean energy leader to laggard.

"It also makes meeting the UK's ambition to triple offshore wind capacity by 2030 and its wider climate targets all the harder. It'll also leave the UK more reliant on volatile, expensive, imported gas.

"Ministers were warned repeatedly that the price set in this auction round was too low and needed to be raised to reflect the rising cost pressures facing large infrastructure projects.

"The government must learn the lesson of this failure quickly and ensure that future rounds reflect the reality of rising costs for developers and the benefits of delivering offshore wind at pace and scale."