The other impending disaster is the proposal that the Crown Estate should be allowed to borrow to fund developments. The great strength of the Crown Estate is that it has until now had to fund developments either by retaining earnings or sale of other assets. This in contrast to the Church Commissioners who have borrowing powers and almost bankrupted themselves pursuing the speculative development of shopping centres all on borrowed money. They were only rescued by their sale of their share on the Metro Centre, Gateshead, but are considerably poorer in real terms that they would have been if they had never borrowed in the first place.
If any work had been done on the Scottish company announced in 2017, the work would have been done by 2020. As in so many other things, the pandemic was an excuse to cover previous inaction.
However, I'm quite horrified to discover how much renewables are tied into the price gouging of the fossil fuel part of the industry.
Now now.
The other impending disaster is the proposal that the Crown Estate should be allowed to borrow to fund developments. The great strength of the Crown Estate is that it has until now had to fund developments either by retaining earnings or sale of other assets. This in contrast to the Church Commissioners who have borrowing powers and almost bankrupted themselves pursuing the speculative development of shopping centres all on borrowed money. They were only rescued by their sale of their share on the Metro Centre, Gateshead, but are considerably poorer in real terms that they would have been if they had never borrowed in the first place.
If any work had been done on the Scottish company announced in 2017, the work would have been done by 2020. As in so many other things, the pandemic was an excuse to cover previous inaction.
However, I'm quite horrified to discover how much renewables are tied into the price gouging of the fossil fuel part of the industry.
If only David Milliband had been an only child!