THE state-owned GB Energy will receive just £100 million in funding for renewables projects in the first two years despite the UK Government’s pledge to invest £8 billion by the middle of 2029.
According to The Times, the allocation of funds to Great British Energy in this week's Budget announcement has prompted concerns over the Labour Government’s progress towards key general election promises.
Labour had previously promised to invest heavily into the state-owned energy company in a bid to decarbonising the entire UK electricity system by 2030.
The government said GB Energy will receive £8.3bn of taxpayer’s money over the next five years.
Trevor Hutchings, chief executive of The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, an industry lobby group, told The Times: “I think it’s disappointing that there isn’t a bigger start to the funding.”
The Treasury said on Wednesday that GB Energy would initially work closely with the National Wealth Fund, previously called the UK Infrastructure Bank, to draw on its “resources, experience and pipeline of projects”.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, allocated £125mn for GB Energy in the 2025-26 financial year in her Budget on Wednesday, with the funding running into the second year of the current parliament.
The figure includes £25mn of seed capital to establish the company with the other £100m in funding going towards clean energy project developments.
In comparison, the Labour Government allocated £3.9bn in 2025-26 for the development of the UK’s first carbon capture and storage clusters – which snubbed the Scottish Acorn carbon capture project in Aberdeenshire where GB Energy is to be headquartered.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “This initial investment will help Great British Energy start its pivotal work in speeding up the deployment of clean technologies.”
It added: “Further funding will follow in the multiyear spending review when GB Energy will have built the capacity and capability to ramp up its activities, and we will meet our £8.3bn commitment over the parliament.”
Ministers have indicated they expect much of the initial funding from GB Energy to be given to solar energy projects, which are usually quicker to launch than other renewable infrastructure.
