Today’s Spending Review demonstrated that the government is willing to fund substantial investment in net zero. The detail of the plans and policies that will follow over the coming months must ensure that the money delivers maximum impact for communities.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Energy Minister responsible for the Warm Homes Plan, holding the Coop Party's Power in our Communities report
The Chancellor announced that the manifesto commitment for a £13.2bn Warm Homes Plan, a key plank of the Labour’s energy policy, would be funded in full. This was not inevitable. Several media outlets have run stories over recent months that DESNZ budgets, including for the Warm Homes Plan, faced severe cuts. That these reports were wrong is very good news. Home efficiency improvements are one of the most effective ways to cut carbon and reduce poverty, as demonstrated by the many community energy organisations involved in delivering heat and energy efficiency services.
The Warm Homes Plan will be published in October and CEE will be working with officials to help ensure that it empowers community energy organisations to expand the sector’s delivery of heat, efficiency and advice projects and services.
The Chancellor announced that “Great British Energy and Great British Energy – Nuclear will invest more than £8.3 billion over this Parliament in homegrown clean power.” CEE welcomes the funding made available to Great British Energy, which has the potential to turbocharge the community energy sector, realising the Energy Secretary’s ambition for “the biggest expansion of support for community energy in British history.” GB Energy currently has a short set of overarching priorities (including one to support projects involving or benefiting local communities) but the detail of how it will deliver on those has not yet been set out. CEE is in regular contact with officials in DESNZ and GB Energy to make the case for a rapid expansion of local, community owned energy.
However, much of the energy funding in this Spending Review will not deliver local energy. A very large proportion of the investment will go to nuclear and carbon capture projects. We strongly believe that local, community owned energy infrastructure offers far greater value for money and carbon savings than large scale, and in carbon capture’s case unproven, technologies that will not deliver what is needed in time for this crucial ‘decade of delivery’ for net zero.
The allocation of funds announced today for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), at five times the average departmental growth rate, demonstrates a genuine commitment to achieving net zero by the government. Given the tenor of political debate in the UK around energy policy, with some prominent political parties and commentators embracing climate sceptic rhetoric and policies, this is welcome. We will continue to work with ministers and officials to support this ambition and ensure that the investment made across this Parliament is as effective as possible in delivering value for communities and transforming our energy system for good.