There has been much made in the pages of the Neath Ferret and elsewhere about Peter Hain's support for the Severn Barrage, also his wife's support for it as well. The excellent blog of Jac o' the North recently ran a very interesting storyline concerning comments and objections made by other parties about the proposed Swansea Tidal Lagoon. In that article Jac also revealed that Peter Hain's wife, Elizabeth Haywood, had in January 2015 been made a Non-Executive Director on the Board of a ScottishPower company, ScottishPower Energy Networks Holdings Ltd. SP Energy Networks is part of the ScottishPower Group of companies, and provides electricity to 3.5 million homes and businesses through distribution and transmission network assets in Central and Southern Scotland and Merseyside and North Wales.
How do you get one of these Non-Executive Directorships? Are they open advertisements, invitation to apply, who you know, or what? £2.9 million is noted in the company accounts for 2013 as directors' emoluments (10 of them - though the non-executives presumably got a lot less than the full time executives).
Mr Hain's wife has clearly taken on a lot recently. According to her "LinkedIn" entry, she is also a Trustee and Board Member of Leonard Cheshire Disability since December 2014 where she contributes to setting policy and strategic direction for the UK's largest disability charity, with a £110m turnover.
She has also, in January 2015, joined The Hendre Group as a Non Executive Board Member where she contributes to setting policy and strategic direction for the £47m housing association.
This is on top of her Partnership with Peter Hain in The Haywood Hain LLP which deals in the following:
*Executive and non-executive recruitment
*Management due diligence
*Media/communications and public affairs
*Business development
And being Chair of the Board of WCVA Services Ltd since 2011, a loan fund company providing loans to the third sector.
Plus being the owner of the executive search and recruitment firm Bosshunters since May 2008.
Who on earth in that family has the time to see to the holiday let business they run at their Aberdulais home and that the paying guests in the "granny annexe" of their taxpayer supported house are comfortably tucked in?
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Not to be outdone though, husband Peter was in fine form in the Commons last week at Welsh Questions on 4 March 2015. The Severn Bore was very much to the fore again and below is how Hansard reported (yet) another question by Peter Hain about the barrage.
Severn Barrage
Mr Peter Hain (Neath) (Lab): What assessment he (Stephen Crabb, Secretary of State for Wales) has made of the potential benefits to South Wales of the Severn barrage.
The Secretary of State for Wales (Stephen Crabb): We have made it clear that we remain open to considering any well developed and privately funded proposals that come forward for harnessing the tidal range resource in the Severn estuary. The right hon. Gentleman’s tenacity on this and a great number of other subjects will of course be greatly missed when he leaves this place. I look forward to meeting him next week to talk further about the Severn barrage project.
Mr Hain: I am grateful to the Secretary of State. Is he aware that the company now taking forward the Severn barrage—exclusively for any form of renewable energy—requires no consumer subsidy through a contract for difference? That could be a game changer for the Government.
With your indulgence, Mr Speaker, may I thank my Welsh Labour colleagues for their comradeship, especially during my two years as a Welsh Minister and seven years as Secretary of State for Wales? We can be proud that we established a Welsh Assembly, and it has been a privilege to serve.
(I think that's such a touching and humble tribute to his fellow Wales MPs as Mr Hain's Commons career draws to its close.)
Stephen Crabb: I thank the former Secretary of State for his question. As I said, I look forward to talking to him in more detail about the project, and to understanding how the proposal might have changed since he and his associates last presented the ideas to various Committees. Let me add that I am proud to be part of a Government who believe in major infrastructure investment, and who are delivering strategic infrastructure investment in Wales the likes of which we have never seen before.
Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): As a lifelong advocate of the Severn barrage, I think that we must now reluctantly admit that the time for the barrage has gone and that there is a better alternative in the form of lagoons at Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree?
Stephen Crabb: The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. He is aware of my enthusiasm for the lagoons project. That is why the Wales Office worked hard to secure the inclusion of the lagoon proposal for Swansea bay in the national infrastructure plan. There is a planning process in place and we need to respect that, but I am proud to be part of a Government who are working constructively and positively with the developers to take the project forward.
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So. Peter Hain is still lobbying for the Barrage and is meeting the Secretary of State for Wales next week, presumably to enlighten him on its progress and convince him it's a better proposal than a series of lagoons.
With the Hafren Power consortium seemingly defunct, who exactly is now driving the Severn Barrage project? We know the players behind the proposed Swansea Tidal Lagoon scheme and they have only last week announced a series of other possible schemes around the Wales and West Country coastlines. But the Severn Barrage scheme is at present more mysterious. Who is involved with backing the company Severn Tidal Energy Ltd that there was so much press coverage about last year, but which seems to have declared no accounts to date and as far as company directors are concerned consists of one man and not even a dog? The company was set up in January last year by the ex-Chief Executive of Hafren, Tonypandy-born Mike Davies, a former director in HSBC’s asset and structured finance group, whose current other interests include being the founder and managing director of finance to the aviation sector, via Siglo Aviation.
Company records for Severn Tidal Energy reveal Davies as the only director, full name Michael Swanson Davies, resident in the USA and occupation listed as "financial consultant".
In July 2014 it was reported (link below) that a global orientated investor, which finances major global infrastructure projects with a long-term return on investment criteria, had initially planned to invest £3m into the project - but was now looking to plough £200m into the company, Severn Tidal Energy Ltd.
The funding would provide the working capital needed for Severn Tidal Energy to carry out the in-depth environmental and economic impact assessments required by the UK Government before giving any approval, potentially through a Hybrid Bill. What has happened to that investment? Who was the investor? I'm sure someone knows. I'm sure Peter Hain knows. But will we ever find out?
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/company-behind-tidal-barrage-project-7373290
I'm not going to even hazard a guess because it could be anyone with millions of pounds to "speculate to accumulate". However, when the Barrage has been pushed in the past, it has been claimed that sovereign wealth funds from Kuwait and Qatar could provide the thirty billions or so of funding that was needed. There are other Middle East, and maybe other, sovereign funds with pots of money as well that might be interested.
In 2014, Severn Tidal Energy appointed a Paul Green as its chief financial officer. Mr Green was previously chief financial officer of Etihad Rail in Abu Dhabi. Is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority yet another Middle East sovereign fund that may be interested? It is owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Qatar already has a connection of sorts to the UK energy sector. Wikipedia states that in 2013 its sovereign wealth fund was the largest single investor in a Spanish company called Iberdrola, who are supposedly Spain’s largest energy group by market capitalisation, the global leader in wind energy and one of the world’s largest utilities by market capitalisation. Could Iberdrola be a player, further diversifying the renewables side of its business?
Iberdrola already has a firm foothold in the UK. It owns ScottishPower, who I referred to in the very first paragraph of this article. ScottishPower's website is very helpful here:
"ScottishPower is part of the Iberdrola Group, a global energy company and world leader in wind energy with operations focused in the UK, US, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.
ScottishPower operates in the United Kingdom through the following business companies: Scottish Power Generation Holdings Ltd (SPGHL), Scottish Power Energy Networks Holdings Ltd (SPENHL) and ScottishPower Renewable Energy Ltd (SPREL); and accordingly, together with the Board of Directors of Scottish Power Limited, which has principal responsibility for the formulation and implementation of Scottish Power Strategy. These head of business subholding companies have their own boards of directors who hold decision-making responsibility for operational business management, ensuring appropriate business separation safeguards are observed.
ScottishPower Renewables is part of the Iberdrola Group and, combined with Iberdrola Renovables, is the world’s No. 1 renewable energy developer".
If the last paragraph above, in particular, is true, wouldn't "the world's No. 1 renewable energy developer" want a piece of the action if the Severn Barrage was ever taken forward? Who knows? But I've a feeling that if Ed Miliband holds the reins of power come May 2015 - well, we will find out soon enough who are the leading players in pushing the Severn Barrage scheme forward.
