Labour's green spending plan cancelled                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced late last week that Labour’s highly publicised £28 billion a year green spending plan has been curbed, replaced by a much smaller £23.7 billion investment over a 5 year period.

A surprising ‘U-turn’ for Labour’s cornerstone green initiative which was officially launched in 2021, the announcement has left so many of us wondering why, especially following Labour Party Leader Sir Keir Starmer’s public backing of the initiative just weeks ago?

When speaking of the change on Friday, Reeves highlighted that the current state of the UK economy is the reason for such a monumental drop in funding - suggesting that the funds just aren’t there for Labour to achieve their original goals.

What’s more, the UK’s electricity and gas grids are famously in need of some serious updating if we’re to meet 2030 Net Zero goals, with some renewable energy projects being made to wait 10 years to connect to the grid because it’s simply not up to task!

An issue raised by the Labour Party back in October of 2023 - the party setting out plans to ‘green the grid’ and make it fit for purpose - Reeves reiterated the issue in her recent interview(s), laying urgency on the need for an updated electricity grid.

Also brought into question were ongoing issues with planning; surely compounded by delays to securing permits as well as securing connection to the grid?

The issues raised in Reeves’ interview are issues we’ve been highlighting for quite some time now so for us especially, and like so many professionals operating in the renewable energy space, it’ll be extremely interesting to see how this conversion develops and what Labour’s new 5 year, £23.7 billion green plan will look like.

Certainly, the impact of the economy on the current energy market and the future of renewable energy projects pertaining to Net Zero goals and, of course, everything that risks us achieving those goals needs to be more openly discussed.

Also of interest will be how our current leaders respond and whether Reeve’s interview moves things forward in a positive way, especially with the next General Election expected during the second part of this year.