by Norman Beddington
Annaliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor and Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have produced a closely-argued paper for Labour’s National Policy Forum on how the UK can recover from the pandemic and re-build an economy that is fairer and greener.
This is based on the results of a consultation launched in June 2020 attracting nearly 2,000 responses from trade unions, NGOs, think tanks and members. These will be used to develop a long-term policy agenda.
The report shows how the Conservative Government has failed to back green rhetoric with meaningful action. The measures announced so far pale in comparison with those committed to by other major economies. Labour’s programme of targeted investments would:
- Revive our industries, with up to 400,000 high-quality, green additional jobs,
- Retrain workers for the green technologies of the future
- Tackle the climate crisis with a social contract between Government and businesses, working with local government, business and the voluntary sector.
The Government must act right now, at the moment when the jobs crisis is at its most acute and as the UK prepares to meet the decarbonisation challenge ahead of next year’s COP 26 world summit in Glasgow.
Housing
The report calls for 7 million improvements to be undertaken by 2030, including full-house improvements for 1.5 m. High levels of unemployment make it urgent to invest in home insulation. Tasks like window replacement and wall insulation would be spread right across the country; the poorest insulation is often found in areas most affected by the jobs crisis. Major investment is needed here, and would support at least 100,000 more jobs.
Building of new social and affordable homes is an urgent priority. The Affordable Homes Programme should be scaled up and brought forward.
Renewable Energy
Offshore Windmust be a crucial part of the UK’s energy mix and the Government’s commitment to 40GW extra capacity and wind farms powering every home by 2030 has been welcomed, but again, investment is inadequate. Upgrading of ports and factories will require nearly £50 bn of public and private investment to meet this target, and this would support 28,000 + jobs. Importantly, this would involve significant investment in skills training to support workers transitioning from North Sea oil and gas.
Community Onshore Wind and Solar
The Government has finally agreed to lift its ban on onshore wind, but has so far failed to act on this policy change.
With solar power, environmental NGOs argue that the UK should seek a 40GW target for solar by 2030; however solar installations have plateaued because government subsidies have been withdrawn and planning policy has failed to support them. Local and community groups must be encouraged to take a leading role in new onshore wind and solar developments.
Aiding Nature’s Recovery
This must include planting new forests, restoring peatlands and other kinds of pro-active management of natural resources. These measures will address both damaging short- to medium-term unemployment and environmental damage, biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.
Friends of the Earth estimates that doubling tree cover will require public investment of about £500m per year on trees alone – 10 times current Government spending on trees.
Recruit a National Nature Service
It has been estimated that 330 already specified projects are available which would provide 10,000 jobs, while government investment of up to £1.9 bn now could support 36,000 jobs over the stimulus period.
Jobs and Industry
Skill shortages threaten the UK’s ability to transition to net zero; the CBI has estimated that 9 out of 10 workers will need to retrain by 2030. In the energy sector the transition to net zero is forecast to require 260,000 new roles plus 140,000 to replace those leaving the sector. More than 1m people have already lost their jobs in this crisis, and the unemployment rate is forecast to peak at 7.8% by late 2020; however the Government’s current approach to supporting job creation and training is inadequate. An example is the manufacturing industry where many UK companies have led the transition to the low carbon economy. Steel and cement will need to reduce emissions by 94% and 93% respectively but the Government has failed to back green manufacturing through targeted investment, unlike many nations.
Retraining Workers
These workers should be training now for jobs of the future. In fact most of the Government’s new skills policies do not begin till April 2021. A National Retraining Strategy is needed to tackle this crisis. Local authorities, further education colleges and Local Enterprise Partnerships should be provided with the capacity to co-ordinate local training provision, rather than programmes being controlled simply from Whitehall. Business should drive transition, and that involves providing a stable regulatory context to incentivise low-carbon investment, as well as action to disincentivise carbon-intensive and extractive investment practices.
A National Investment Bank with a clear green mandate would support the long-term investment in low carbon projects that is needed across the UK.