It has been claimed that plans to construct a £25bn barrage in the Severn Estuary are "dead in the water" when it comes to the current Parliament.

Neath MP, Peter Hain, is quoted by the BBC as saying the UK Government has refused to commit to the project.

Hafren Power wants to build an 11-mile barrage between Lavernock Point near Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, and Brean, near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.

Earlier this year, the government said the developers had failed to make the case on whether the project would be good for the economy or the environment. In a report, the House of Commons' Energy and Climate Change Committee criticised a "lack of information and a perceived lack of transparency" about the proposal.

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It added the case is "unproven" and Hafren Power "has yet to provide robust and independently verified evidence of the economic, environmental and technological viability of the project."

However, those in support of the scheme said the tidal barrage could generate 5% of the UK's electricity.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales on Monday, Mr Hain said: "It (the UK government) refuses to say whether it backs it or opposes it.

"In practice it's put it into the long grass and therefore as far as this Parliament is concerned it is dead in the water but not as far as the future is concerned."

(JP/MH)