Recommendation 3

Government’s Net Zero Strategy relies heavily on private investment and innovation driving down costs; however, government has a poor track record of providing investor confidence. The Strategy relies on government leveraging billions of pounds of private investment to spur innovation in pursuit of its objectives. Despite this, in some areas such as heat and buildings government is only ‘fairly confident’ that the measures it is putting in place, including grant funding and regulatory reform, will encourage economies of scale that will drive down the cost of net zero technologies. The private sector needs to have confidence in government’s policies to risk investing resources in developing technologies and upskilling the workforce. However, government has a repetitive track record of making stop-start decisions on green schemes that erode investor confidence, which we have seen again most recently in relation to the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme debacle. It remains to be seen whether departmental budgets set over a three-year period Achieving Net Zero: Follow up 7 gives investors sufficient long-term clarity. The Department indicated that the new Strategy would have greater permanence because it was developed in conjunction with HM Treasury’s multi-year spending review and has long-term targets and trajectories with legal commitments to carbon budgets and achieving net zero. Recommendation: The Department should monitor how quickly technology costs are falling and the levels of private investment it is attracting, and set clear triggers for interventions such as new policies and regulations for when things go off course. The Department should write to the Committee every 12 months with an update on its progress.