Labour targets wind power and planning as it unveils green plan

LONDON — Keir Starmer will restate his commitment to wind power Monday as he seeks to position Labour as the green choice ahead of an expected general election.

Speaking in Edinburgh alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Shadow Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband, the Labour leader will double down on his pledge to end the U.K. government’s de facto ban on new onshore wind projects.

Labour claims that the ban has forced the U.K. to purchase more energy from overseas, adding the equivalent of £182 to average annual household energy bills.

The move on onshore wind is part of Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan, which will also introduce new targets into the planning system for renewables, streamline the consenting process for offshore wind, and hand regulators a mandate to pursue net zero goals.

“We’ve got to roll up our sleeves and start building things, run towards the barriers — the planning system, the skills shortages, the investor confidence, the grid,” Starmer will say, according to a statement shared with journalists ahead of the speech.

Labour — which leads the polls ahead of a general election expected next year — has already laid out ambitious green targets, including its aim to decarbonize the power system by 2030, five years ahead of the government’s own target.

Its initial pledge to invest £28 billion a year on green technologies, made in 2021, was watered down after Reeves promised instead that Labour’s green spending would “ramp up” towards that total in the second half of a parliamentary term. 

Starmer will also use Monday’s speech to flesh out the party’s plans for GB Energy, a state-owned energy company, which Labour says will work with local councils and devolved governments to create up to 8GW of renewable energy projects within five years.

Labour’s green plans can “cut bills, create jobs and provide energy security for Britain,” and can slash £53 billion off energy bills for businesses by 2030, Starmer is expected to say.

He will argue that the “Tory-SNP era” has “failed miserably,” adding: “This is the race of our lifetime — and the prize is real.”