Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said the government would prioritize major projects and increase investment in this month’s budget.
In addition, she announced that around £22 billion would be invested in two major new carbon capture schemes over 25 years.
She criticized plans inherited from the previous government to cut investment in the economy and said she would not repeat “that mistake”.
But the Conservatives said it was thanks to them that funding for carbon capture projects had already been announced.
After weeks of suggestions that the Chancellor would change voluntary borrowing rules to allow significant additional investment in major projects, Mr Reeves gave the strongest indication yet that the level of state investment would increase significantly. gave.
The Green Plan is two new carbon capture and storage projects in Merseyside and Teesside.
The Government said it would create and support thousands of jobs, attract private investment and help the UK meet its climate change targets.
Up to £21.7bn of funding over 25 years will subsidize three projects that start capturing carbon from hydrogen, gas and energy from waste.
He said oil and gas giants BP and Equinor would be among the companies providing private sector funding for the project, adding that other countries “hope to get this kind of investment” as well. Ta.
But Doug Parr, head of policy at Greenpeace UK, said more than £21 billion was “a lot of money to spend on something that extends the production life of global warming oil and gas”.
The Prime Minister said such contracts were never signed because the previous government did not prioritize capital spending, which is money spent on things like buildings, equipment and IT.
She directly criticized the fact that the UK’s capital budget is due to fall from 2.5% of the size of the economy to 1.6%.
But Claire Coutinho, Conservative shadow energy secretary, said: “It is to the Conservative Party’s credit that funding for these projects has already been announced for spring 2023.”
He added that the announcement “does not make up for the path of massive deindustrialization that Ed Miliband’s costly net zero and energy policies are leading us to, and that his ambitions will continue to strengthen steel manufacturing, Refineries, with the devastating impact on jobs already being seen in the north,” he added. sea”.
But Reeves said the previous administration was “cutting investment at exactly the time when we needed more investment in the economy.”
“I’m not going to make that mistake,” she said.
Her words are the clearest confirmation of a change in the approach to spending on major projects in the budget and spending review, in conjunction with attempts to attract large-scale private investment at the next international investment summit.
He said the summit would be a “huge opportunity to show what the UK can offer to some of our biggest investors”, including private equity, venture capitalists and sovereign wealth funds.
He also rejected suggestions that the government’s budget rhetoric was spreading pessimism among consumers and businesses, saying there would be a “drumbeat” of major investment within days.
