£3.5bn boost to North and Mersey Tidal Power Project

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn has announced plans for a £3.5 billion investment in the Mersey Tidal Power Project as part his party’s Green Industrial Revolution to address the climate emergency and boost investment in the North of England.

On a visit to Liverpool with the Mayor of Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotherham, Corbyn is expected to pledge that the next Labour government will ‘ramp up’ investment in green industries to ‘power up the north’, whilst accusing the new Prime Minister of neglecting Britain’s communities.

The announcement forms part of Labour’s plans to tackle the North-South economic divide with a Green Industrial Revolution which will deliver 400,000 new jobs through schemes including the world’s biggest offshore windfarm in the North Sea.

Labour’s £250 billion National Transformation Fund will be based in the North, to ensure that investment is focused in areas that have lost out under the Tories – including Crossrail for the North to upgrade the region’s rail infrastructure.

The Mersey Tidal Power Project will harness the power of the River Mersey and Liverpool Bay to produce clean, renewable energy to power up to a million homes, create thousands of jobs and contribute toward the UK’s zero-carbon economy.

Corbyn said: “Reversing years of neglect of the towns and cities of the North under the Tories means rejecting the failed economic status quo and investing in our communities and industries of the future. While Boris Johnson looks to the past and prioritises the interests of his wealthy friends, Labour is looking to the future with plans to ramp up investment in exciting projects like the Mersey Tidal Power Project, which will kick-start Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution, power up the north and create thousands of new jobs.

“The choice at the next General Election will be stark. The new Prime Minister and his hard right government have prioritised tax giveaways to the richest and big businesses and are staking all of our futures on a sweetheart trade deal with Donald Trump that would risk the takeover of our NHS by private US companies. A Labour government will offer real change with the expansion of investment in green industries and the communities that the Conservatives have spent the past nine years holding back.”