Labour has sidelined essential green policies
Rachel Reeves's spring statement (Report, 26 March) has sidelined the nature policies that Britain needs to build a more prosperous economy, and tackle the planetary crisis that is threatening our way of life.
Days after Kemi Badenoch ditched net zero, Labour is following suit, with growth trumping net zero, fast-tracked airports, faltering marine protections and the climate and nature bill, backed by 192 MPs, kicked down the road. I first presented the bill in 2020 to lock the UK's climate and biodiversity commitments into law. Labour backed its ambition in 2023, yet whips blocked it in January.
The bill could centre nature's importance across decision-making. Instead, billions have been found to prop up flawed carbon-capture technology, while the co-benefits of investing in nature-based solutions – like reforestation, peatlands, wetlands and regenerative farming – are sidelined.
The cuts to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, even with a boost to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignore the interconnections of climate and nature plans, risking both. This siloed approach, mirrored in Labour's cuts to international aid and a pause to nature-friendly farming payments, must end.
The solution? To deliver the joined-up legislative framework we need to weave climate and nature across Labour's cross-governmental missions. And that means making time to advance the climate and nature bill.Caroline LucasGreen MP for Brighton Pavilion, 2010-24
Rachel Reeves emphasised her desire 'to get people back to work', but gave no hint of what form that work would take. One country-wide job creation scheme that could be delivered over the next few years would be for the government to double the £6.6bn already committed in its election manifesto to its warm homes plan for improving energy efficiency.
This massive increase in investment could be funded by the government announcing the cancellation of further investment in nuclear power. Our report, Redirect Sizewell C funding to warm homes, shows that about £40bn will be spent over the next 15 years on this nuclear white elephant. Were it to be scrapped now, this could free up more than £7bn by 2030.
This huge redirection of funds would generate long-term, secure jobs, particularly for young people across the UK. It could be quick to implement, so by the next election, homes across the country will be warmer, healthier and with reduced energy bills. This widespread improvement in living conditions, and the generation of jobs in every constituency, could improve Labour's currently diminishing chances of winning the next election. Colin Hines Green New Deal GroupAlison Downes Stop Sizewell C
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The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Rachel Reeves in stand-off over policing and council budgets days before spending review
Rachel Reeves has been locked in a standoff over the policing and council budgets just days before this week's spending review, which is set to give billions to the NHS, defence and technology. Yvette Cooper's Home Office and Angela Rayner's housing and local government ministry were the two departments still at the negotiating table on Sunday fighting for more cash, after weeks of trying to reach a settlement. Whitehall sources said the policing budget would not face a real terms cut, but there was still disagreement over the level of investment needed for the Home Office to meet its commitments. Rayner's department is understood to have reached an agreement with the Treasury late on Sunday night after last-minute wrangling over housing, local councils and growth funds. However, any failure to strike a deal would raise the prospect of a budget being imposed on an unwilling department. The spending review, taking place on Wednesday, is a chance for Reeves to hold up billions of pounds of capital spending as a sign she is working to repair public services after years of Tory austerity. After tweaking her fiscal rules last autumn, she has an additional £113bn funded by borrowing for capital spending. Her plans will include £86bn for science and technology across four years and an extra £4.5bn for schools – taking funding per pupil to its highest level ever. However, day-to-day spending is more constrained in some areas, while the NHS and defence swallow up higher allocations. As well as policing, the Home Office budget covers the border force and spending on asylum costs, while the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been battling for funds for the affordable homes programme, councils, homelessness and regional growth. Labour has manifesto pledges to build 1.5m homes and deliver 13,000 new police officers. Pressed on the policing budget, the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, said Home Office and others would have to 'do their bit'. Funding for the police has the potential to become a politically difficult issue for Keir Starmer. Tory former shadow cabinet minister Robert Jenrick has been campaigning against transport fare dodging and Nigel Farage's Reform are also highlighting the issue. Asked about which public services will be prioritised, Kyle said 'every part of our society is struggling' and numerous sectors had asked Reeves for more money. 'On the fact that the police have been writing to the chancellor, they have,' he told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme. 'We also have letters from the universities, we have letters from doctors about the health service, we have letters from campaigners for child poverty writing to us, and other aspects of challenges in Britain at the moment. 'Every part of our society is struggling because of the inheritance that we had as a country and as a government.' He pointed to the £1.1bn extra funding already earmarked for police this year, as he defended Reeves's handling of the spending review process. 'We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit,' Kyle said. 'You see a chancellor that is striving to get investment to the key parts of our country that needs it the most … You will see the priorities of this government reflected in the spending review, which sets the departmental spending into the long term. 'But this is a partnership. Yes, the Treasury needs to find more money for those key priorities, but the people delivering them need to do their bit as well.' While some areas of spending may be cut or receive only low increases, the NHS is set to receive a boost of up to £30bn by 2028, while defence spending is expected to rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. Kyle defended the chancellor's approach to public spending, saying she was like Apple founder Steve Jobs who turned the company around when it was 90 days from insolvency. He told Sky News's Trevor Phllips: 'Now Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod. 'Now we're starting to invest in the vaccine processes of the future. Some of the hi-tech solutions that are going to be high growth. We're investing in our space sector. All these really high, highly innovative sectors. 'We are investing into those key innovations of the future. We know that we cannot break this vicious cycle of high tax and low growth by doing the same as we always have done. We have to innovate our way out of this and we are doing so by investing in those high-growth sectors.'
The National
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- The National
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The Independent
an hour ago
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