Autumn statement: UK commits to climate targets

Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has unveiled his autumn statement.

Speaking to the House of Commons today (Thursday, November 17), he said that his budget would be a “balanced path to stability”, but that reaching said path required making “difficult decisions”.

Speaking on expenditure for climate commitments, Hunt said “with the existential vulnerability we face, now would be the wrong time to step back from our international climate responsibilities”.

He confirmed that the UK would “remain fully committed to the historic Glasgow climate pact agreed at COP26”.

He said that the UK has, and will remain committed to reducing its emissions by 2030.

Hunt called the UK “a global leader on climate change”, saying that the country had cut emissions “more than any other G20 country”.

He said that clean, affordable energy is what is needed to “power our future economy and reach net zero” and confirmed that the UK will continue building the nuclear power plant Sizewell C, which he said is the “biggest step in our journey to energy independence”.

It will, he added, also deliver 10,000 highly skilled jobs.

Energy consumption

Hunt said the UK needs to prioritise becoming energy independent on reliable and low-carbon power, adding that energy efficiency is just as important as energy independence.

“There is a global energy crisis, a global inflation crisis and a global economic crisis,” he said.

“But today with this plan for stability, growth and public services, we will face into the storm. We do so today with British resilience and British compassion.

“By 2030 we want to reduce energy consumption from buildings and industry by 15%. Reducing demand by this much means in today’s prices, a £28 billion pound saving from our national energy bill, or £450 off the average household bill.”

He committed £6 billion to improving energy efficiency from 2025 to help deliver this “new national ambition”.

He added that a new energy efficiency taskforce will be launched shortly.

If achieved, Hunt said that this would “remove the single biggest driver of inflation and volatility facing British businesses and consumers”.

And, to help at present, he said the Energy Price Guarantee, which is protecting households throughout this winter by capping typical energy bills at £2,500, will continue to provide support from April 2023 with the cap rising to £3,000.

He also reiterated the Conservative’s commitment to its ‘Levelling up’ agenda and said plans for the second round of the Levelling Up Fund were confirmed, with at least £1.7 billion to be allocated to priority local infrastructure projects around the UK before the end of the year.

Among the commitments through Levelling up are plans to transformative growth plans for railways including High Speed 2 to Manchester, the Northern Powerhouse Rail core network and East West Rail, along with gigabit broadband rollout.

“If a modern economy needs secure, clean and affordable energy, it also needs good roads, rail, broadband and 5G infrastructure,” he said.

“Such connections matter because they allow wealth and opportunity to spread to every corner of the country, and that is why infrastructure is our second growth priority.

“Thanks to decisions by this conservative government, right now workers right across the countries are building or maintaining thousands of miles of roads and railways, installing mobile masts and broadband cables to connect the remotest parts of rural Britain, building and repairing hospitals and constructing new wind turbines in the North sea.”

He also increased the National Living Wage for workers by 9.7% to £10.42/hour, giving a full-time worker a pay rise of over £1,600 a year.

Employers

The Chancellor also announced a £13.6 billion package of support for business rates payers in England. To protect businesses from rising inflation, the multiplier will be frozen in 2023-24 while relief for 230,000 businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure sectors was also increased from 50% to 75% next year.

To help businesses adjust to the revaluation of their properties, which takes effect from April 2023, the Chancellor announced a £1.6 billion Transitional Relief scheme to cap bill increases for those who will see higher bills.

This limits bill increases for the smallest properties to 5%. Businesses seeing lower bills as a result of the revaluation will benefit from that decrease in full straight away, as the Chancellor abolished downwards transitional reliefs caps.

Small businesses who lose eligibility for either Small Business or Rural Rate Relief as a result of the new property revaluations will see their bill increases capped at £50 a month through a new separate scheme worth over £500 million.