Miliband's green agenda would create UK jobs, tame
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- Ed Miliband has faced coordinated opposition to becoming chancellor from trade unions Unite and GMB, who argue his net zero policies will cost oil, gas and utilities jobs, alongside City investors who fear his public investment agenda will worsen borrowing.
- The Treasury blocked Miliband's proposed £28bn-per-year green prosperity plan, which included commitments to create 650,000 jobs by 2030 with emphasis on industrial regions, skills, training and apprenticeships.
- A CBI report finds the net zero economy generates £105bn in output (3.5% of UK GDP) and supports over a million jobs, many in the north-east of England; the Climate Change Committee calculated every £1 of public money on net zero delivers 2.2 to 4.1 times that amount in benefits.
- Britain's 2022-23 inflation was a supply-side energy shock driven by dependence on imported fossil fuels, and since WWII, energy price spikes have coincided with 8 of 10 episodes in which UK inflation was near or above 5%.
- Rachel Reeves has been unable to challenge Treasury orthodoxies that have overseen decades of falling public investment, private finance initiatives that proved poor value, and a higher debt-to-GDP ratio, according to the column.
- Unison has backed Miliband for chancellor, and Andy Burnham is positioned in the piece as the presumptive next prime minister who could pair Miliband as chancellor with a mandate for greater public control over domestic essentials.
Why it matters: If Miliband's green investment plan can create 650,000 jobs without spooking bond markets, as Ryan-Collins argues with CBI and Climate Change Committee data, it would reframe the UK's fiscal debate around productive public spending rather than austerity, directly determining whether industrial regions see job growth or continued neglect under any Burnham-led government.
