A Labour government would cut energy bills, create jobs and provide more secure power by sweeping away barriers getting in the way of green projects, the leader of Britain’s opposition party will pledge on Monday.
Keir Starmer will vow to make Britain a “clean energy super power” by 2030, according to excerpts of a speech he plans to deliver in Scotland that were released by the Labour Party.
The goals reiterate promises that both Labour and Conservative governments alike have made and failed to keep over the past few decades. Business leaders complain that planning rules and bureaucracy are holding back investment, especially in critical green technologies like wind farms, electric-car battery plants and carbon capture facilities.
Proposals include lifting a ban on new onshore wind within months of taking office and cutting the time taken to complete clean power projects from years to months with “tough new targets.”
Starmer is seeking to boost confidence in Labour’s commitment to green energy after the party scaled back its plan to invest £140 billion ($180 billion) over five years on a clean energy transition because of cost concerns. It now plans to “ramp up” to £28 billion a year, rather than deliver that figure from the beginning of the next parliamentary term.
The original plan fell victim to Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to show a more fiscally conservative face to voters ahead of an election polls show they can win next year. Industry leaders says the clean-power goals are all but impossible.
“We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and start building things, run towards the barriers — the planning system, the skills shortages, the investor confidence, the grid,” Starmer says in the excerpted comments.
“If the status quo isn’t good enough, we must find the reforms that can restart our engine. I’m not going to accept a situation where our planning system means it takes 13 years to build an offshore wind farm.”
Britain would run on 100% clean power by 2030 under Labour, Starmer will say, cutting £1,400 off household bills and £53 billion off energy bills for businesses. Industry experts say the clean power goal is impossible.
“2030, even with the best will in the world, I would say is impossible,” Phil Thompson, chief executive of clean energy developer Balance Power Group Ltd. said earlier this month. “We have to be super ambitious because the planet isn’t getting any cooler and it’s a case of shoot for the stars, but I think technically it’s not achievable unless someone has got a magic wand.”
Labour needs to make sure its backers in the unions are on board with its plans and there have already been signs of disquiet. Unions want to make sure fossil fuel jobs aren’t destroyed before enough new ones created.
Read more: Labour’s Starmer Defends UK Energy Plan After Union Critique
A new public body, GB Energy, would be created to build jobs and supply chains, together with a National Wealth Fund to invest alongside the private sector in gigafactories, clean steel plants, renewable-ready ports, green hydrogen and energy storage.
Labour, which has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, is hoping a strong climate policy will help it win votes at the next election. A vote, due by January 2025, is widely expected to be held next year.
Starmer will deliver his pledge alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Reeves and Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. They will seek to show a united front despite internal tensions over the move to row back the scale of investment.
