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Welsh Affairs

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. She was one of those who most articulately persuaded me to extend the boundaries when I was in the old Welsh Office. Wales has an abundance of natural resources, with a coastline and landscape that lends itself to a variety of offshore and onshore wind and other renewable energy developments, including wave and tidal. The Government are moving forward with a feasibility study into the potential for a barrage across the Severn estuary that would generate fully 5 per cent. of UK electricity needs. It would be the biggest renewable energy project by some distance on our island, creating tens of thousands jobs, first in construction, then permanently.