Starmer signals huge increase in UK green investment

Keir Starmer has signalled that his government will drastically increase its green investment plans in an attempt to avoid a rerun of 1980s-style industrial decline by safeguarding jobs in heartland manufacturing communities.

- Richard Partington

On a visit to a Cheshire glass factory yesterday to announce billions of pounds in funding for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, the prime minister suggested more public money would be made available for new technologies.

"It's just the start," he told workers at the Encirc plant on the banks of the Mersey, between Chester and Runcorn. "I've always believed clean energy is a golden opportunity for our country; a chance to bring security and hope for working people, to relight the fires of hope in those areas that were hit so hard by deindustrialization."

At the end of the week when the last coal-fired power station in Britain -the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire closed, and virgin steelmaking ended in south Wales, Starmer said Labour would prioritise investment to kickstart a moment of "industrial renewal".

It is understood a string of funding pledges involving public and private sector capital will be announced over the coming days, for projects across the country, before the UK hosts a global investment summit on 14 October.