Ed Davey to advise law firm on renewable energy projects
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Version 0 of 1. Ed Davey, the former energy secretary, is to start private work today for City lawyers connected with both Hinkley Point C nuclear plant and the Swansea Bay lagoon. Davey has been given clearance by the Cabinet Office to provide consultancy to Herbert Smith, a law firm that provides advice on the two power projects and where his brother is also employed. The Liberal Democrat minister, who lost his parliamentary seat in the spring general election, says he will only help Herbert Smith on renewable power projects, but not the Swansea Bay tidal project or Hinkley Point. Herbert Smith has a major energy practice. The contract with Davey is in the first place a short-term one and has been arranged alongside a separate consultancy deal with Macquarie Bank. The latter arrangement will also be relatively brief and concentrate on giving advice on UK rooftop solar projects where the Australia-based bank is a significant lender. Davey is also to add a more permanent job to his post-ministerial career by becoming chairman of Mongoose Energy, a co-operatively owned community power project based in Bristol. “I am very excited about this work, particularly in the community energy sector. Since university I have been very committed to environmental issues and would like to carry on with the initiatives I helped start or grow as energy secretary,” he said. “I am very proud of my [ministerial] record of creating green jobs but there is so much more to do. Damage is being done by this government and more that ever people need advice about how to prosper in this more hostile environment.” Davey was closely allied to both Hinkley and Swansea Bay schemes but says it is right he steers clear of these now he is no longer in power. The man once tipped to be a leader of the Lib Dems has been a vocal critic of the way his Conservative successor, Amber Rudd – but more particularly George Osborne – has taken the axe to many of the subsidy regimes for renewable energy that he set up. Davey said he was fully prepared to spend some of his time as a renewable energy consultant working abroad because the climate for investment in Britain had become so chilly. A high-profile crowdsourcing company, Trillion Fund, has just pulled the plug on its activities citing a downturn in opportunities because of the government’s policies. Davey says he wants a portfolio approach to his working life currently but has not dismissed the idea that he may eventually return to frontline politics. There has been much criticism in the past about a perceived “revolving door” between lucrative business contracts and former members of parliament. |