So there it was, 40 odd minutes of how the world is rosy according to Rachel Reeves without a single mention of the clean energy revolution – one of the central pillars of Labour’s term.
In delivering the deadly dull statement she did have one mantra “delivered by this Labour government, opposed by the parties opposite.” That was used for jobs, defence, the NHS, economy, you name it.
But the things we might have been expecting? News on the promises of GB Energy, CCS, nuclear fusion, energy bills, climate change itself…zip.
Before today we received endless press releases talking about what might be revealed on the energy and net zero landscape, in the end there was a cursory mention of planning and infrastructure, nowt else.
Sure, she mentioned training 60,000 workers but not anything specific about green skills. She did mention the planning bill and castigated the opposition for criticising it – but nothing about how it would fund the EV rollout, the grid connection queues, the building of offshore and onshore wind.
Now it’s fair to say there were overall headline figures on growth and OBR forecasts of debt and the economic picture. Pretty gloomy with growth cut from 2% to 1% this year, inflation expected to be up from 2.6% to 3.2%.
There was mention of £2bn a year on capital projects but it appears most of that is earmarked for rebuilding our defence capabilities.
So there it was, to be accurate not a budget.
Definitely a statement.
But for the energy and net zero sector it’s clear despite all the hyperbole and Ed Miliband’s endless social media positivity, when it comes to the big ticket items, it’s not a statement issue.
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