Our Clean Power Action Plan will deliver Clean Power by 2030, with an expected £40bn of investment on average per year our to 2030. Government is also determined to secure associated growth and resilience opportunities alongside our world-leading deployment plans, by increasing domestic manufacturing in Clean Energy Industries and associated innovation and services. Clean Energy Industries have been prioritised as a frontier industry in the Industrial Strategy to enable us to capture these opportunities. This sets out a comprehensive policy package to secure private investment in clean energy manufacturing. These decisions lay the foundations for a future energy system that will grow the economy for local communities and real people by securing and creating new quality jobs and protecting bill payers.

This Government continually assesses risks to national energy security, including from industrial action, as reflected in the National Risk Register. Under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), critical sectors including energy infrastructure must have in place plans for maintaining key services in the event of significant workplace absences including strikes.

As set out in our Industrial Strategy: Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan, we work in strong partnership with unions, industry, and investors to foster a thriving and skilled workforce, safeguard energy security, and maintaining investor confidence in the UK’s clean energy future.

The Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan, launched on 23 June 2025 under the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, targets regional growth and aims to double clean energy investment to over £30 billion a year by 2035, with small businesses playing a key role. The Plan proposes streamlining planning, improving grid access, and supporting innovation to benefit SMEs and local firms.

Additionally, Great British Energy will boost investment in local and community energy projects, ensuring communities play a central role in the UK’s clean energy transition. For 2025/26, we have set up £5 million in grant funding through the Great British Energy Community Fund, which is available to community energy groups to help communities develop their own clean energy projects, including solar-powered generation and onshore wind.

Planning policy is devolved to the Scottish Government and they have made it clear they oppose the building of new nuclear power stations.

The UK Government works productively with the Scottish Government on a range of energy issues and we would welcome engagement on new nuclear given the growing interest in the potential for projects in Scotland and the opportunity for jobs and skills across the country, should the position on planning change.

The government has announced its support for the Acorn (Scotland) and Viking (Humber) clusters and is providing the development funding to advance their delivery. A final investment decision (FID) will be taken later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability.

The government has been working with clusters to understand what they need to keep them progressing to FID and are confident the Spending Review outcome will enable us to continue collaborating on that.

As agreed with Acorn, the government has established a ministerial-led forum, where UK and Scottish governments, regulators and industry representatives come together on a regular basis to drive forward momentum for the Scottish cluster. The forum convened for the first time on 22/07/25 and was chaired by the Minister for Industry.

The department is committed to working closely across Government and industry stakeholders to take forward the actions needed to develop supply chains that are resilient, sustainable, innovative and secure. Investment in the energy sector is subject to the highest levels of national security scrutiny – we take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing relations with China and will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.

DESNZ works closely with industry and other government departments to maintain a detailed picture of ownership and foreign involvement in energy infrastructure, including for investors from key manufacturing regions such as China, other Asian countries, and Europe.

Upgrading and expanding the electricity network is critical to the government’s mission of making Britain a Clean Energy Superpower. NESO analysis suggests that bringing forward critical transmission network projects and avoiding delays to wider network build could deliver savings of approximately £4bn in 2030 by reducing constraint costs. That is why we are taking bold steps to accelerate infrastructure build, speed up planning, and reform grid connections.

Over the past year alone, we’ve delivered the most significant investment in clean, homegrown energy in British history, laying the foundations for a clean, secure future energy system that protects bill payers.

As part of their advice on delivering Clean Power 2030*, the National Energy System Operator found that electricity demand growth of approximately 11% by 2030 would be required to electrify transport, heat and industry at the pace required to meet the Nationally Determined Contribution emissions target for 2030. This advice also found that overall costs to consumers would not increase from the shift to a clean power system whilst unabated gas should provide less than 5% of Great Britain’s generation in a typical weather year.

*Clean Power 2030 | National Energy System Operator

On 23 August 2024, the Government commissioned the National Energy System Operator (NESO) to provide practical advice on achieving a zero-carbon electricity system by 2030. NESO consulted publicly in September and October 2024 on its approach and assumptions and published its advice in November 2024. We accepted independent advice from the National Energy System Operator (NESO), on the energy infrastructure required to deliver Clean Power 2030. Last December, we launched our Clean Power 2030 Action Plan which set out a detailed plan for achieving the target of clean power by 2030.

Great Britain is expected to have sufficient supplies of electricity and gas to meet consumers’ demands over the short and long-term (Statutory Security of Supply Report 2024). The UK’s diverse power mix reduces dependence on one generation source, ensuring security of supply in a range of conditions. By complementing renewables with flexible capacity, we ensure we can meet demand no matter the weather.

Through the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, we have taken significant steps to ensuring a resilient electricity grid, including reforming grid connections, streamlining the planning system, and supporting investment in supply chains and green jobs.

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) is responsible for operating Great Britain’s electricity system and managing constraints. Constraint payments are part of Balancing Use of System charges and NESO publishes total balancing costs, which are paid for by energy users and totalled £1.7bn in 2024. Published costs are not split between different types of generators.

Constraints are a natural part of operating an efficient electricity system and constraint payments are used around the world. However, Government is working to reduce constraints and improve energy security by accelerating the building of new electricity network infrastructure to increase capacity on the system.

Spend by Great British Energy will be published in the usual way through annual reports and accounts.

Following the election, this Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones - across the missions - for this Parliament.

As the House would expect, Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer.

Public reviews will be available on gov.uk as they are published.

I refer the Rt Hon Lord Offord of Garvel to the answer provided by the Secretary of State on 10 December 2024 to Question 18202.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ) traded carbon values for modelling purposes are used to estimate the financial cost of purchasing allowances in the United Kingdom Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) under different scenarios. These values are owned by DESNZ and not by the UK ETS Authority which governs the UK ETS.

The most recent set of traded carbon values for modelling purposes, for 2024, were published on the Government’s website on 17^th December 2024 and are attached. The assumptions are listed on the publication.

The Government recently announced £30 million of additional budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for 2024-2025 in response to increased uptake of the scheme. It was also confirmed that the scheme budget for 2025-2026 will be almost doubled to £295 million, so that more families can benefit from £7,500 off the cost of a heat pump.

In addition, we are reforming air source heat pump permitted development rights in England, investing in UK manufacturing through the Heat Pump Investment Accelerator programme and introducing a reformed Clean Heat Market Mechanism next April, making heat pumps an even more attractive choice for households.

In England and Wales, the Planning Act 2008 requires developers to demonstrate that they have consulted adequately with communities before they submit applications for consent. Developers are also required to show they have fairly considered alternatives to their proposals in their applications. In Scotland, the Scottish Government’s good practice guidance sets out the expectations and requirements for consultation.

The Government is committed to ensuring that communities who live near new clean energy infrastructure also benefit from it and are currently considering how to most effectively deliver this. This includes developing guidance on community benefits for electricity transmission network infrastructure, which we will publish in due course.

The Government has made clear in planning guidance that, wherever possible, solar developers should utilise brownfield sites. All projects are subject to rigorous planning examination, in which any impact on agricultural production is considered.