Miliband visited RWE's Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm | Zara Farrar / No 10 Downing Street
The government's clean power plans point to a 12-month period of critical policy activity that should unlock a huge wave of green investment
The juxtaposition this morning between the ambition contained in Labour's new Clean Power Action Plan and the despondency evident in the latest GDP data gets right to the heart of the immense economic and political challenge facing the new government.
The surprise news that GDP contracted by 0.1 per cent in October is a reminder of both the appalling economic inheritance bequeathed to the new government - when the margin of error is taken into account UK GDP has been flat or worse for much of this decade - and the extent to which a downbeat economic narrative risks becoming self-fulfilling. Consumer and business confidence is a fragile and mercurial thing, and even Labour's biggest cheerleaders now accept the new government overdid the hard-nosed pessimism during its first few months in office.
The problem the government now faces is that after several decades of chronic under investment and a full decade of self-harming ideological projects the UK's economic problems are so deep-seated there are no quick fixes available. The policy levers Labour is now trying to pull will take time to deliver visible results, and yet the public are understandably impatient for the change that was promised.
The flurry of broadly positive green policy announcements over the past few days provide a case in point.
The planning reforms announced yesterday will unlock significant new investment that should result in many more housing developments and clean energy projects being delivered. The last government tried to make some of these changes and failed. Labour is not promising to reshape the planning system to make it fit for the 21st century.
But it will take several more months for local authorities to complete the process of reviewing greenbelt boundaries, reclassifying greybelt land, and delivering long overdue local plans. Similarly, clean energy developers now have to come forward with the wind and solar farms that were arbitrarily constrained by the Conservatives' renewables-hostile planning regime. There are lots of projects that have been held up in the pipeline, but they now have to work their way through a planning system where any objections will still need to be properly heard and considered.
Meanwhile, broader reforms to try and streamline planning processes for large scale projects such as transmission lines and new towns will have to wait until next year's Planning and Infrastructure Bill. Environmental campaigners will also be hoping this legislation lives up to the government's promise that it is serious about marrying development with enhanced nature recovery.
Big changes are on the way and the planning barriers that have subdued economic growth for decades should be substantially lowered. But it will then take yet more time for the increased activity and promise of competitive wages to stimulate an expanded skills base.
The sweeping reforms set out in today's Clean Power Action Plan tell a similar story. The 130-page document contains welcome confirmation the grid connection queue will be shaken up to prioritise those clean energy projects best placed to be delivered quickly. But the bulk of the plan sets out a roadmap for the critical policy decisions that will be finalised in the coming months.
This roadmap and the work being undertaken by other departments is hugely exciting for everyone working in the green economy. This is an incomplete list, but alongside the critical Planning and Infrastructure Bill there is going to be a call for evidence on solar canopies, new moves to boost solar rooftop projects, the long-awaited confirmation of the Future Homes Standard, an updated Environmental Improvement Plan, a beefed up net zero strategy, a consultation on what are likely to be minor changes to the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, new extended producer responsibility rules for packaging, the full mobilisation of GB Energy and the National Wealth Fund, a final investment decision on Sizewell C, the confirmation of the SMR competition finalists, a likely deal to save Vestas' wind turbine blade factory on the Isle of Wight, and Ofgem's decision on multi-billion pound grid upgrade investment.
Perhaps most important of all, next summer will see the confirmation of a clean power contract auction budget that the government today signalled had to be in line with its goal of delivering a 95 per cent decarbonised power system by 2030. This auction will come alongside the finalisation of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements, which promises to provide clarity on whether or not the government will proceed with locational pricing reforms.
Legitimate concerns remain over whether the Treasury will provide the fiscal firepower and Whitehall bandwidth necessary to maximise the economic benefits that should flow from this period of intense policy activity. But the upcoming decisions should provide the framework for a major increase in green infrastructure investment and business development through to 2030 and beyond. It may even be enough for the government to deliver on its interlinked and hugely ambitious clean power and economic recovery goals.
However, the positive effects in terms of investment, job creation, enhanced energy security, economic growth, and eventually lower energy bills will take time to filter through. The challenge for the government on yet another day of depressing economic data is to find a way to instil confidence that meaningful and positive change is coming, while explaining that the rewards from that change may not be felt for a few more years. A request for patience is a tough political sell, but that is what is needed. The challenge for businesses it to now seize on the opportunities presented by this wave of green policy reforms to deliver the investment and projects that can ensure the wait for a sustained economic recovery proves as short as possible.
