Humber's £15bn carbon capture investment plan matters deeply to me - politically and personally: Lord Jason Stockwood

Personal because I grew up in this region. I know what industrial decline looks like. I know what it feels like when opportunity seems to pass towns and regions like ours by.

Which is why the suggestion that a future government might scrap support for carbon capture projects in the Humber and Teesside should concern anyone serious about jobs, investment and the future of our industrial regions.

The Humber has spent more than a decade repositioning itself as one of the UK’s leading centres for clean energy and modern industry. That has not happened by accident. Governments of different political colours have backed this direction because the economic logic is clear.

Around £15 billion of private investment is aligned around the Humber industrial cluster if carbon capture infrastructure proceeds. Thousands of construction jobs would follow as pipelines and storage facilities are built. Thousands more long term roles would emerge across engineering, operations and logistics.

Alongside this, colleges and training providers across the region will need to scale up, developing the skills pipeline for the future so that young people growing up in Hull, Grimsby, Scunthorpe and the surrounding towns can access high quality industrial careers.

For communities that have waited decades for meaningful economic renewal, this matters.

Carbon capture is often framed purely as climate policy. In reality it is just as much about industrial competitiveness.

Heavy industries such as refining, chemicals and advanced manufacturing remain central to Britain’s economy. But they are also major emitters. Carbon capture offers a practical way to keep those industries productive while dramatically reducing their emissions by storing carbon beneath the North Sea.

The Viking project, linking industrial sites around Immingham to storage off the Lincolnshire coast, would be a world leading example of how that transition can work.

Countries such as the United States, Norway and Canada are already investing heavily in this technology. They understand that the nations that prove carbon capture can work at scale will export that expertise globally.

The Humber has the potential to become one of those global exemplars. But projects of this scale depend on one thing above all else. Confidence.

Confidence that Britain is a stable place to invest. Confidence that long term commitments will not be casually reversed for short term political theatre. Confidence that when companies commit billions of pounds of capital, the rules of the game will remain broadly consistent.

At a moment when the UK is working to bring inflation down, stabilise the public finances and attract international investment, undermining that confidence would be deeply damaging and irresponsible. Suggesting that major industrial projects could simply be cancelled risks sending exactly the wrong message to global investors.

There is also another practical point that often gets overlooked.

By the time projects like Viking move into construction, with significant private investment lined up and legal frameworks already in place, the idea that a future government could simply unwind them is overstated. Contracts exist. Commercial obligations exist. Investors have rights.

Attempting to reverse projects of this scale rarely proves simple, and it rarely proves cheap.

Perhaps the most striking omission in the current debate is the absence of any credible alternative at anything close to the same scale or impact. In my role I have the privilege of seeing a wide range of investment opportunities across the country, and very few come close to the transformational potential this project holds for the Humber region.

To be fair, I have had positive and pragmatic conversations with regional leaders across the Humber. We broadly agree that prioritising jobs, skills and long term industrial opportunity must come first. Which makes the intervention from Robert Jenrick – who wants funding to be pulled – feel both irresponsible and poorly timed.

The Humber remains one of the most important industrial regions in the United Kingdom. It generates around a fifth of the nation’s electricity, produces a third of its refinery output and handles a significant share of Britain’s gas imports. It is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the country.

Doing nothing is not an option.

If we are serious about creating well paid jobs and long term prosperity in places like Hull, Grimsby and Immingham, we need practical plans for how existing industrial infrastructure evolves in a lower carbon world.

Carbon capture is not the whole answer. But it is a vital part of the solution. For a region that has spent years building momentum around clean energy and industrial investment, the suggestion that we should walk away from that opportunity would simply be turning our backs on the future.

Lord Jason Stockwood is Minister for Investment and co-owner and former Chair of Grimsby Town Football Club