Melanie Onn

I thank the hon. Member for that comment. It is about how we view community benefits and how embedded in communities they are. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) talked about things being done with communities, not to them. This is about what will best benefit a community and having that discussion at an early stage, which is what I have been advocating. The traditional understanding of community benefit is payment for a local football team’s shirts or things like that, but that is not what I see this industry or this Bill unlocking. It needs to be about transforming local communities, which, critically, comes through skills, through the supply chain and through delivering industrial benefits that local people have access to. That is the thrust of what I am trying to say—clearly I have not been successful, if the hon. Member for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald) did not see that, but I will persevere, which I am sure he will be delighted to know. Interestingly, the Crown Estate has recently supported a community project in my constituency called Projekt Renewables—it has a “k”, giving it a slightly Nordic slant on things. It is a box park construction next to the Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre, bringing together the old and the new, and the past, present and future. It provides community education, and it is a space to bring together schools, businesses and visitors to learn about the renewables sector in Grimsby, including its history, its importance and the possibilities for the future. The community education piece is incredibly important, and we do not talk about it enough. The Crown Estate recognised that there is a need for wider understanding of activities, some of which are significant or significantly disruptive in local areas, so that residents can better understand what is happening in their place. I keep talking about opportunity, because some Members have not seen this Bill as an opportunity for expansion, investment, growth and long-term change. The Bill actually unlocks quite a lot of that. There is an opportunity not only for greater expansion of public information and education, but to have a single standard of available materials and off-the-shelf information to support local areas. That would help provide a general understanding that would stop individual companies producing their own bespoke education programmes. We should have something that is uniform and that provides the facts, and then companies can build on that if they want. It would be a much stronger offer, and more beneficial to collective understanding because of the uniformity. However, there are further steps that the Crown Estate could take to provide local people with skills, to guarantee sustainable development. In my area, the freeport is already undertaking some work on skills. Under the new devolution plans, there is provision for skills to be a key strand of mayoral responsibility, but how can the Crown Estate fit into that model? I believe that it really must do so to maximise the benefit of all the organisations, and to have a common theme and common objectives. Arguably, the Crown Estate has a lot more to lose if the skills are not there for offshore deployment and long-term maintenance support. New projects such as the Able quay, which is just outside my constituency, will make offshore wind ambitions deliverable. It will open up the supply chain investment opportunities that we have been waiting for—frankly, for far too long—and enable the Crown Estate to generate significant revenue and value for the UK. The Crown Estate could do so currently but, under the new proposals in the Bill, has an even greater opportunity to invest in infrastructure such as the Able quay. Port facilities are holding back the sector and the core skills that are currently in shortage in the industry, as well as those that we know will become a critical blockage in the future once the newly consented projects get under way. If we really want to maximise the value of projects and see the UK get the biggest bang for its buck, it is essential to use every arm of every organisation to actively support them in overcoming the challenges. I know that the Crown Estate is willing—and I have seen it in action, so I know that it is also able—but I wonder whether this Bill needs to say explicitly that it has a duty to focus on infrastructure and skills, which are so critical. Not having those prerequisites in place could make projects undeliverable, and no developer or supply chain company can oversupply or invest ahead of decisions, because the Crown Estate makes so many of the final decisions, alongside the Government. No one can invest until those decisions are made. Devolution and the creation of GB Energy—two great leaps in structural change in this country—give a great opportunity for new public institutions to be created in order to intervene in skills. In the Humber region, I would like to see an arrangement or organisation that brings together the Crown Estate, the new devolved authorities, the freeport and the Humber Energy Board. With support from the likes of GB Energy and central Government, it could back a coherent approach to supporting skills and avoiding their becoming a barrier to project delivery, as well as reduce costs by supplying enough talent for the whole sector, rather than each project chasing the same small pool of people. We should use the Bill to catalyse substantial and lasting change, providing employment opportunities for generations to come. I understand that Crown Estate Scotland is already carrying out similar efforts, actively promoting skills and job opportunities through initiatives such as community capacity grants, which support social enterprise projects and training courses, and land-based skills education, so I do not think that is beyond the scope of the Bill.