Saturday November 07 2026, 11.20pm,
Labour politicians handed £68m of pensioners’ money to a risky wind farm project in Wales whose bosses then paid themselves millions in dividends.
Party members of the Welsh Pension Partnership (WPP) signed off the investment in Bute Energy — a start-up that has lobbied to erect hundreds of turbines across the middle of the country.
Leading politicians including Lord Watson of Wyre Forest were recruited to promote the scheme as a way of boosting green energy across Wales.
Although the pension fund was warned by its independent advisers that the investment in Bute had a “number of risks”, the payment was approved.
Bute Energy has since had to scale back its plans to construct 16 giant wind farms. Not a sngle site has been built and only one has received planning permission, despite an initial pledge to have five approved and ready to build by 2024. Nevertheless, having received the investment from the pension fund, which looks after the savings of 412,000 government workers in Wales, Bute Energy’s directors gave themselves a £58m dividend even though the scheme has not made a profit.
Jenny Chryss, a spokeswoman for RE-think, a campaign group opposed to large-scale wind farms in mid-Wales, said: “As a company, Bute Energy has never completed the construction of a wind farm and only has planning permission for one of its many proposals.
“I believe serious questions need to be asked about how the WPP funds are being spent and how safe they actually are. What we’re talking about here is money provided by the public purse to Welsh local authorities and then in turn earned by hard-working council staff who trust WPP to look after their pension pots.”
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Cardiff, Bute and its parent company Windward were set up by Oliver Millican, 45, with former colleagues Lawson Steele, 40, and Stuart George, 38, both of whom are accountants. The three men first crossed paths at Parabola property group, a real estate developer founded by Millican’s father, Peter Millican, who was awarded an OBE in 2015.
Bute’s plan was to invest £4.5bn in Wales to produce more than 2.2 gigawatts of clean energy — about 25 per cent of the country’s electrical demand — by 2035. However, the proposals, which would have led to hundreds of turbines being built 220 metres high, were immediately fiercely opposed by farmers and rural communities.
Bute Energy and Windward set about winning over politicians in Westminster and the Senedd, and recruited several Labour politicians. Derek Vaughan, a former Welsh Labour MEP with no experience in renewables, was appointed as chairman of Bute’s Welsh advisory board focused on community engagement in March 2021. Vaughan, who left the role in 2023, said the board did “not advise on financial or technical matters or get involved in lobbying”.
The WPP was approached to invest in Bute in 2021 by a London investment firm and documents show that planning approval for the wind farms would be “received between 2022 and 2025,” with the energy parks “likely to be all operational by 2027”.
Hymans Robertson, a pensions advisory firm, carried out a risk assessment for the WPP and warned that there were “a number of risks”, citing the “early stage venture capital-like” nature of the investment and the “unknown result of planning approvals”. It added: “We have not carried out due diligence on Bute Energy,” stating that this was the responsibility of the investment firm.
Despite this advice, seven of the eight council pension funds that make up the WPP approved the £68m investment into Bute. Five were chaired by Labour politicians. The joint governance committee of the WPP, led by Ted Palmer, a Labour county councillor, then approved the decision “in principle”, and said the investment would help to address climate change and the cost of living crisis “while also retaining the wealth from renewable energy in Wales”.
The WPP said: “The investment decision was made by the individual pension funds.” Welsh Labour said the party “had no role in the decision to make this investment”.
Windward’s senior leaders hoped that the deal would instil public confidence in Bute and help to get its plans approved, according to a former company insider.
An initial advance of £18.5m was made by the WPP. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a Danish renewables investment firm, also injected £60m into Bute in 2023.
Buoyed by the new cash, by the end of March 2024 Bute revalued its business and a £60m dividend was created and passed through the different parent companies of the Windward portfolio, accounts show. Millican, Steele and George were paid through their Windward shareholdings. Millican received between £21m and £47.5m; Steele and George got more than £4m each.
Around the same time as the revaluation, George and Steele founded LSG Capital, a private investment platform which owns a luxury apartment brand in Edinburgh called Stay Hush, including properties close to the city’s castle and Royal Mile. Meanwhile, Millican last year acquired “significant control” of Torra, a Scottish forestry harvesting specialist, and invested £5m.
Bute continued to court Labour politicians throughout 2024. On February 28, Anna McMorrin, a Cardiff Labour MP, held a fundraising event for Bute at the Old Queen Street Café in Westminster, promising “guaranteed face time” with Rachel Reeves, who was then shadow chancellor, and David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary. Bute Energy paid £3,000 to sponsor the event, which McMorrin declared as a political donation
Days later, on March 5, a parliamentary reception was organised by Bute and McMorrin, called “Lessons from Wales: renewable energy delivering social value”. A private dinner followed later that night, attended by Bute employees, directors, McMorrin and Watson, who at the time was not only a sitting lord but an “adviser on future energy requirements” at Windward.
A spokesperson for McMorrin said: “All of Anna’s donations are reported and declared through official channels and can be found on the register of members’ financial interests.”
Meanwhile, John Griffiths, a former Welsh Labour MS, was given two tickets and hospitality for the 2024 Bute Energy Welsh Cup final, a women’s football clash between Cardiff City and Wrexham, held in May. Two weeks later, he sponsored a company event at the Senedd. Griffiths said: “I declared the tickets and hospitality in the register of members’ interests which is available on the Senedd’s website.”
By September 2024, Windward had recruited Watson as a non-executive director. He left in September this year to join Palantir, the AI firm which is being used by the NHS. After his resignation, Millican told employees in a private email that Watson had “played an instrumental role in evolving our external affairs capabilities”. Watson was approached for comment.
After Labour was elected to power in July 2024, Torsten Bell, the MP for Swansea West and now pensions minister, met officials from Bute Energy to discuss their developments in south Wales.
In total, Bute has declared £42,577 worth of “political expenditure” in its end-of-year accounts.
The election of Plaid Cymru to the Senedd in May has further clouded Bute’s future as it is opposed to the construction of pylons — an essential component to the Bute project. Bute’s latest accounts show losses stood at close to £25.5m for the year ending March 2025.
Darren Millar, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, has urged Audit Wales to “undertake an independent investigation into this matter”.
Audit Wales said it had “considered” allegations regarding the WPP’s public investment into Bute Energy and was “unable to provide any further comment”. It added that it did not have the authority to audit Bute Energy or Windward Energy.
Windward Energy said it was supporting 3,000 jobs in Wales: “Windward Energy is focused on delivering a decarbonised energy system, working closely with communities and partners across Wales and the UK.”
A Welsh Labour spokesperson said: “Any donations or sponsorship received are subject to the relevant checks and reported in accordance with electoral law and are declared transparently in line with the rules. Political donations or commercial relationships do not have any influence over party policy or decisions taken by elected representatives.”
