Exclusive:Government decision on £15bn Humber carbon capture project pushed back until after spending review

However, Mr Miliband confirmed that there would not be an announcement in today’s spring statement from the Chancellor, and instead businesses would have to wait until later in the year.

“It's an important project for the region, it's an important project for the country, but obviously these decisions are all subject to the spending review,” he said.

“That's the right approach because, as Rachel [Reeves] always says, stability is the foundation of everything that we do.”

In her Labour Party Conference speech, the Chancellor pledged funding for the Viking carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project in the Humber, as well as on Teesside and Merseyside.

Carbon capture aims to trap harmful by-product gases, compress them, and store them in huge underground tanks beneath the North Sea.

The fledgling technology is touted as an alternative to releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

The Humber “Energy Estuary” generates 20 per cent of the UK’s total electricity, creates one-third of its refinery products and is the location for the importation of around one-fifth of all gas into the country. It is also the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in Britain.

Last year, Sir Keir Starmer announced almost £22bn worth of funding for the “track one” clusters in Teesside and Merseyside, the Humber was not included as it has been allocated in “track two”.

Business groups say they are ready to invest more than £15bn in decarbonisation projects in the region, if the government goes ahead with CCUS investment.

However, since Ms Reeves’ conference speech, senior Government figures have failed to guarantee the funding.

Previously, Mr Miliband told this paper that the Government would “absolutely be returning to those Track Two projects [like the Humber] which are really, really important”.

Now, the Energy Secretary said: “I think it's really important that when we make commitments, we can fund them.”

Drax’s Richard Gwilliam, chair of the Humber Energy Board, said: “CCUS is a critical technology to enable the region’s existing asset base to decarbonise, ensuring the Humber can continue to provide energy security for the UK whilst supporting our climate targets and meaning that decarbonisation for the Humber does not mean deindustrialisation.

“However, businesses and investors need certainty. The Government’s spending review is a pivotal moment to provide the long-term financial clarity required to unlock private investment and accelerate delivery.

“We urge the Government to provide the certainty needed to ensure these nationally significant projects move forward at pace. The Humber stands ready to deliver, but we need commitment and funding certainty to make it happen.”

Siemens Gamesa head of UK and Ireland, Darren Davidson, said it was “very important” that the spring statement continued to back the Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, as set out by Mr Miliband last year.

Since Ms Reeves made the CCUS pledge last September, economic uncertainty has seen the cost of government borrowing rise across the world, hampering public spending.

The Chancellor is widely expected to unveil a spring statement today which will include widespread public spending cuts, in an effort to meet her own fiscal rules.

She said: “We can see that the world is changing, and part of that change is increases globally in the cost of government borrowing – and Britain has not been immune from those challenges.

“The OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) will set out their verdicts on growth and on the public finances today, but we will continue to meet the fiscal rules I set out in the budget last year.

“Economic stability is non-negotiable, I will never play fast and loose with the public finances like the previous government did.”

In the UK, the yield on 10-year gilts – effectively the cost of government borrowing – has risen from 4 per a year ago to 4.7 per cent, with some blaming domestic factors as well as the global trend.

Economists have suggested that this, combined with the UK’s stuttering growth, will mean the £9.9bn of headroom Ms Reeves had against her fiscal rules in October would be eliminated, requiring today’s statement to deliver either spending cuts, tax rises, or the abandonment of those rules.