Mini-budget fell far short of promoting low-carbon future for UK
The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has announced that the effective ban on onshore wind farms is to be lifted, and the poorest households will regain access to insulation and energy efficiency measures.
Polls show that onshore wind is popular, with more than 70% of people supporting it. Jess Ralston, a senior analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “The ban on onshore wind has been a major anomaly in British energy policy given it’s both cheap and popular with the public. So a decision to lift the ban suggests [Kwarteng] has listened to the experts and understands building more British renewables reduces our reliance on costly gas and so brings down bills.”
The measures will help to boost renewable energy generation and keep thousands of people’s homes warmer in the next three years. But they were virtually the only concrete low-carbon policies in a mini-budget that promised an estimated £60bn over the next six months to the UK’s energy companies, to protect consumers against higher bills, and rewarded North Sea oil and gas producers with the prospect of 100 new licences. Experts say the latter would do nothing to improve the current energy crisis, and threaten the UK’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions target in years to come.
The biggest gap was on home insulation. Kwarteng confirmed that £1bn over three years would come from energy suppliers to be spent on the most vulnerable consumers. Much of it will go on loft insulation and in some cases boiler replacements that are expected to save thousands of people on low incomes about £200 a year.
This still leaves no provision for the vast majority of the UK’s estimated 19 million households in need of home insulation. Amy Norman, a senior researcher at the
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