Healey Cuts £3bn from Energy Budget for Defence — SkimNews
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- John Healey announced over £3bn in cuts to the energy department’s budget to fund higher defence spending, with major reductions targeting green energy initiatives
- Boiler upgrade scheme will lose £741m as funding rises only with inflation, undermining plans to increase annual heat pump installations from 60,000 to 250,000 by 2030
- Energy department sources confirmed cuts of £250m to the warm homes plan, £500m from hydrogen projects, and £200m from carbon capture and storage technology
- Andrew Sissons of Nesta warned the cuts make it 'very difficult to see how we can hit our clean heating targets,' raising the prospect of a Labour government missing its own carbon budget
- Paul Ovenden, a former adviser to Keir Starmer, described the cuts as 'the bones of Ed Miliband’s project being picked clean,' linking them to Miliband’s departure from the energy portfolio
- Energy department officials maintain the government remains committed to clean power by 2030 and argue that shifting green costs from bills to taxpayers supports long-term affordability and adoption
Why it matters: The UK risks missing its legally binding carbon targets as £741m is cut from heat pump subsidies alone, slowing deployment at a time when experts say adoption must accelerate. This shifts the burden of decarbonisation from fossil fuel users to general taxpayers while prioritising short-term fiscal cost over green capacity growth.
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