The Prime Minister has today set out a new £12 billion Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution which is forecast to create and support up to 250,000 British jobs and spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030.

Covering clean energy, transport, nature and innovative technologies, the PM’S blueprint will allow the UK to forge ahead with eradicating its contribution to climate change by 2050, particularly crucial in the run up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next year.

At the centre of his ambitious plan are the UK’s industrial heartlands, including the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, Scotland and Wales, which will drive forward the green industrial revolution and build green jobs and industries of the future.

The Prime Minister’s ten points
Offshore wind: Producing enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling how much we produce to 40GW by 2030, supporting up to 60,000 jobs.

Hydrogen: Working with industry aiming to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes, and aiming to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.

Nuclear: Advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, across large scale nuclear and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors, which could support 10,000 jobs.

Electric vehicles: Backing our world-leading car manufacturing bases including in the West Midlands, North East and North Wales to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and transforming our national infrastructure to better support electric vehicles.

Public transport, cycling and walking: Making cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel and investing in zero-emission public transport of the future.

Jet Zero and greener maritime: Supporting difficult-to-decarbonise industries to become greener through research projects for zero-emission planes and ships.

Homes and public buildings: Making our homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient, whilst creating 50,000 jobs by 2030, and a target to install 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028.

Carbon capture: Becoming a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030, equivalent to all emissions of the industrial Humber today.

Nature: Protecting and restoring our natural environment, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year, whilst creating and retaining thousands of jobs.

Innovation and finance: Developing the cutting-edge technologies needed to reach these new energy ambitions and make the City of London the global centre of green finance.

Boris Johnson said: “Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. My Ten Point Plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, while making strides towards net zero by 2050.”

To deliver on six points of the plan, the Prime Minister has announced new funding, including:

Carbon capture: To revitalise the birthplaces of the first industrial revolution, the UK will be at the global forefront of carbon capture, usage and storage technology, benefitting regions with industries that are particularly difficult to decarbonise. An extra £200 million of new funding to create two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, with another two set to be created by 2030. This increased the total invested to £1 billion, helping to support 50,000 jobs, potentially in areas such as the Humber, Teesside, Merseyside, Grangemouth and Port Talbot.

Hydrogen: Up to £500 million, including for trialling homes using hydrogen for heating and cooking, starting with a Hydrogen Neighbourhood in 2023, moving to a Hydrogen Village by 2025, with an aim for a Hydrogen Town – equivalent to tens of thousands of homes – before the end of the decade. Of this funding, £240 million will go into new hydrogen production facilities.

Nuclear: £525 million to help develop large and smaller-scale nuclear plants, and research and develop new advanced modular reactors.

Electric vehicles: Following extensive consultation with car manufacturers and sellers, the Prime Minister has confirmed that the UK will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, ten years earlier than planned, with the sale of hybrid cars and vans continuing until 2035. £1.3 billion has been earmarked to accelerate the roll-out of chargepoints for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways around England. Meanwhile, £582 million will be made available in grants to encourage the uptake of zero or ultra-low emission vehicles. Nearly £500 million will be spent in the next four years on the development and mass-scale production of EV batteries, as part of the Government’s commitment to provide up to £1 billion, boosting international investment in the UK’s manufacturing base - particulary the Midlands, North East and North Wales. The Government will also plans to launch a consultation on the phase-out of new diesel HGVs to put the UK in the vanguard of zero emission freight.

Homes and public buildings: A total of £1 billion will be made available next year to make new and existing homes and public buildings more energy efficient, extending the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme by a year and making public sector buildings greener and cutting bills for hospitals and schools, as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

Greener maritime: £20 million will be made available for a competition to develop clean maritime technology, such as feasibility studies on key sites, including Orkney and Teesside. This follows ambitious plans to make the UK the world leader in clean wind energy, and plans for greater protections for England’s iconic landscapes and the creation of new national parks, as set out by the Prime Minister over the last few weeks.

Driven forward by significant investment
Other key parts of the plan will be driven forward by significant investment set out over the last year, including the £1 billion energy innovation fund to stay ahead of the latest technologies needed to reach new energy targets, £5 billion for alternative greener ways of travel including cycling, walking, and buses, and £5.2 billion to create new flood and coastal defences in England by 2027.

Professor Nilay Shah OBE FREng, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and vice-chair of the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) Net Zero working group, said: “This is an ambitious and broad-ranging announcement. It’s good to see a holistic approach which aims to advance our capabilities across a broad range of domains. There is a good balance of supply, demand and infrastructure interventions planned.

“However, delivering net-zero in a just and economically beneficial way will require a huge and sustained engineering effort, a clear understanding of how the different interventions work together as a system, and accompanying societal, cultural, behavioural and structural change. It requires a stable commitment by Government to net-zero policymaking over the long term that builds on the short term economic recovery and responds to the scale and pace of change required.”

UK Steel director general, Gareth Stace, added: “Crucially, new green infrastructure is precisely what the economy needs to rebound, and the UK steel industry is ready to support the Government’s ‘build back better’ strategy by supplying the world-class steel that is essential for our offshore wind, energy-efficient buildings, electric vehicles, and hydrogen networks.

“It is critical that the Government expands this infrastructure strategically, ensuring that these projects support jobs and growth in the UK, delivering the largest possible return for taxpayers money by maximising the UK content of these major projects. The Government must set clear objectives for steel procurement in these major projects, as happens in the USA.”

“However, despite these positive steps, the Government’s continued silence on industrial electricity prices remains a major concern. All options of decarbonisation will lead to higher electricity use for the steel sector and many other industries, making high power prices a substantial barrier to meeting the net zero target.”

The Institution of Mechanical Engineering’s engineering policy advisor Matt Rooney said: “The PM’s 10-point plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is a collection of the various policies on decarbonisation that the Government has been working on for some time. The challenge now is to bring this all together into a practical and deliverable plan with joined-up thinking across the whole energy system.

“The proposed “task force net zero” is potentially an effective way to oversee this unprecedented energy transition, but in order to be effective it must be well-resourced, include professional engineering expertise, and meet with the Prime Minister and relevant Secretaries of State on a regular basis.”