IIGCC Responds to UK Chancellor's Spring Budget

Emily Murrell, IIGCC’s Policy Programme Director, responding to the UK Chancellor’s Spring Budget:

The UK Chancellor called this “a budget for long-term growth”. However, the measures announced today do little to encourage much-needed investment in the green industries that will contribute most to the sustainable growth, competitiveness and productivity of the UK economy. If the UK is to remain an attractive hub for inward investment, the Government must do more to tackle policy barriers and promote an enabling policy environment that supports long-term investment and keeps pace in an increasingly competitive global landscape. 

We are pleased to see the Spring Budget provide more clarity on the government’s plans to move forward with critical reforms to accelerate planning rules and grid connection reforms, as mentioned in the Autumn Statement. These reforms will facilitate decarbonising and modernising the UK’s energy system, and scaling up renewable energy. But without accompanying measures to accelerate and scale investment in the renewable technologies the impact of these policies is considerably weakened.  

The pledge of £120 million for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator (GIGA) is a relatively small amount when compared to the significant incentives being offered to investors by the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Green Deal. There remains a lack of spending on developing UK green industry and the related jobs it creates by the UK Government - a recent analysis of the International Energy Agency’s Government Energy Spending Tracker by Greenpeace found that the UK “ranks worst out of top 5 Western European economies on green spending”. 

The majority of investment needed to reach net zero must come from the private sector. This budget lacked any major policy announcements that would unlock the major investment required to maintain the UK’s status as a leader in green finance, and fulfil its decarbonisation targets. It is disappointing not to see more focus on climate, as this is the last major fiscal announcement before the General Election.

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