Are Ed Miliband’s green dreams really just a lot of hot air?

One might ask, what do the Premier League hearings into Manchester City’s alleged abuse of financial fair play rules have to do with the fate of Labour’s flagship project, Great British Energy (GBE)?

Unlocking the funding needed to turn the UK into a “clean energy superpower by 2030”, as GBE publicity promises, will require the involvement of foreign investors, many of whom are based in the Gulf.

The problem is that Manchester City’s owner, Abu Dhabi, along with the other Emirates, have been investors in Britain for many decades but feel unwelcome and alienated by the regulatory barriers erected against investment.

The grandiose aim outlined in the founding statement on the Government website for GBE, funded by £8.3 billion of taxpayers’ money, is to turn the country into a green powerhouse in just six years.

It is an ambitious goal that will largely depend on the willingness of investors, including those in the Gulf, to support the project.

The cost of that six-year transition is estimated to be well over £100bn, on top of the £300bn of projects already committed.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and the government were late to the net-zero carbon party. In the latest auction of green energy licences, including offshore wind farms, established Scandinavian companies snapped up 70 per cent of them.

Among the other bidders to get the green light was publicly listed British energy provider SSE, which has an imaginative green agenda. When GBE was launched in July, Keir Starmer promised to boost UK energy independence in partnership with the Crown Estate, which is responsible for much of the coastal area where the wind farms are located.

He suggested the deal could unlock up to £60bn of investment in the sector.

There was no explanation of how this would happen or why it was different from the status quo, given that the Crown Estate already has partnerships with most of the major offshore wind developers.

In reality, the green economy is a shadow of what Labour envisioned for a zero-carbon economy when it was in opposition. Under its original green prosperity plan, £28bn a year, over the course of a parliamentary term, would be spent on the task.

In a U-turn, that initial commitment was watered down to the sum being spent midway through the next term. Chancellor Rachel Reeves, keen to avoid extravagant spending commitments, eventually succeeded in limiting the government’s spending to £8.7bn during the current term.

As appealing as a revolution in green energy manufacturing may seem, catching up with competitors will not be easy.

Britain has already fallen behind Germany in building mega battery factories. Most of the solar panels being installed are made cheaply in China. And for the moment, Germany seems to have secured control of heat pump manufacturing.

In a nod to Scotland following the Government’s decision to block future North Sea oil licences, the Prime Minister has pledged to locate GBE’s headquarters north of the border.

But the number of skilled engineering jobs that will be created will not be comparable with the tens of thousands expected to be lost.

Miliband highlighted the way the Government is approaching the mission by lifting the ban on onshore wind power within 72 hours of taking office in July this year.

He has also promised a new ‘Control Mission’ by 2030 at the heart of government, although it is not entirely clear what that means.

Senior executives working for Britain’s biggest listed energy groups are not impressed.

A major hurdle is the lack of support for the supergrid, in terms of the switching stations and battery storage facilities needed to transport and store power. Plans for a wave of giant pylons are mired in nimby objections, despite Labour’s promises to tear up planning laws to allow new infrastructure to be built.

Among the biggest frustrations is the failure so far to develop new nuclear power stations. At the launch of GBE, the government said it would look at how it could work with Great British Nuclear, set up by the Conservatives in March 2023.

The lack of any signals from the Department of Energy is a source of frustration.

A senior director of a major energy group has expressed concern that plans for a second super reactor, Sizewell C in Suffolk (similar to the one being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset), are still awaiting Government consent and support.

There are also fears at Rolls-Royce that unless a decision is taken soon on small modular jets, Britain’s technological lead could be eroded by foreign players.

For the moment, the GBE is an empty vessel. Many of the main players in the race to net zero are overseas.

Slow decision-making and “nimbyism” are holding back the achievement of the 2030 target.

As things stand, the promise of a labor revolution and lower prices is a mirage that is fading before our eyes.