There is no specific proposal at present to build a Severn Barrage. The Sustainable Development Commission is however producing a report, with financial support from various parties including my Department, looking at various options for harnessing the potential tidal energy resource that exists around the UK, including within the Severn estuary. The SDC will, of course, be looking at the Severn Barrage tidal power scheme and other options within the Severn estuary.
The SDC project has included a significant programme of stakeholder and public engagement. This work is now complete and involved two stakeholder workshops in Aberdeen and Cardiff, a series of deliberative public workshops and focus groups at regional and local levels, and a national omnibus poll. A report of the engagement programme, and an independent evaluation of the programme, will be published as part of the evidence base that underpins the SDC's final report that is expected by the end of September.
In the communications that have been received by my Department from organisations or authorities on this issue, it has not always been the case that opinion is clearly for or against a particular scheme.