THE £8.3 billion Labour promised during the General Election to invest in GB Energy is in doubt.
It comes after the UK Treasury declined to confirm that the UK Government was still committed to spending that amount by the middle of 2029 ahead of its multi year spending plan due in June, when asked by Bloomberg News.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves allocated just £125m for GB Energy in the 2025-26 financial year in her Budget last year, with the funding running into the second year of the current parliament.
The figure includes £25m of seed capital to establish the company with the other £100m in funding going towards clean energy project developments.
This prompted some concerns at the time over the Labour Government’s progress towards this key General Election pledge.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously promised to invest heavily into the state-owned energy company in a bid to decarbonise the entire UK electricity system by 2030.
But now, there are fresh doubts as to whether the £8.3bn funding will even be available as Reeves attempts to cut public spending to meet her self-imposed fiscal rule that day-to-day spending must be covered by tax receipts.
Since its official launch last July, progress has been slow and not without criticism – including frustration over GB Energy not having its own headquarters in Aberdeen and how the chair, Jürgen Maier, will actually be based in Manchester.
In an interview with Sky News three weeks ago, Maier also poured cold water over another Labour pledge of creating 1000 jobs for Aberdeen – saying it might take 20 years.
Meanwhile, Dan McGrail was only named as the interim chief executive officer of GB Energy last week.
In contrast, the Labour Government has already 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.
The UK Treasury and Desnz have been approached again for comment.
