The architect, Peter Barber, has written a bold, polemical vision for the UK and it’s called ‘8000 mile island’. As Peter explains: ‘The idea encompasses the notion of a countrywide aquacultural and maritime industrial revolution that would see a ribbon of tidal barrages, off-shore wind farms, giant floating tidal turbines, deep sea fish and seaweed farms, tracing our coastline from the Orkney Islands to the Isle of Wight and back.’Â
The vision links a number of responses to the key challenges currently faced by the UK, including energy security, changing diets, coastal town regeneration, health and wellbeing, housing provision, and the NetZero agenda.
The first thing to say is, as a country, we clearly need to build on our inherent strengths and resources. These include some of the windiest seas and the biggest tidal ranges. The key sources of future renewable energy for the UK are obvious, giving us a route to energy self-sufficiency and security.
Rather than the ever-greater concentration of wealth and resources in London and the South East, we need to also start thinking more broadly of the country in terms of the regions and the coastal periphery.
It’s startling to consider that the housing shortage in the UK could be largely addressed by renovating the homes in our coastal and regional towns and providing the jobs and services to attract people to live there. 400,000 empty properties already exist in the Midlands and North which could be quickly retrofitted to bring them back into use, rather than building thousands more in the congested South-East.
And this is where the new food industries plan comes in, linking to the National Food Strategy, as espoused by Henry Dimbleby and others. As Peter Barber says: ‘Our land area is 95,000 square miles but our territorial waters extend to three times that. Imagine a revolution in maritime food production.’ Imagine huge seaweed farms, producing nutrient-rich food and absorbing carbon along the way. Imagine huge oyster and mussel beds and the harvesting of fertiliser from ginormous fish farms.
The massive challenges of our times demand bold, visionary thinking. Our coast and our seas hold massive potential and we need to urgently go and unlock it.
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