UK needs it own version of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, says Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow minister for net zero has said that the country needs a government which would be willing to introduce a British version of the US president’s landmark law.

Passed in August last year, it saw an unprecedented $391 billion on energy security and climate change, including $270 billion in tax incentives as part of his plan to fight inflation.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post following a visit to the University of Sheffield’s Translational Energy Research Centre, Mr Miliband explained how the fifth of Sir Keir Starmer’s five “national missions”, on making the UK a clean energy superpower, would work.

He said that creating investment to all regions of the UK, including Yorkshire was “completely essential” to the mission.

“One of the very striking things you are seeing in America is Joe Biden pushing forward with his Inflation Reduction Act, this reindustrialisation of America,” he added.

“We need a government that needs to do a British version of the Inflation Reduction Act to generate these jobs, and jobs in Yorkshire.

“As I’ve seen in my visit today there’s huge potential here for the country.”

Yesterday the Government announced that it would be looking to speed up big infrastructure projects such as green energy from September.

However, the former Labour leader said that its omission of onshore wind proved the Government was not serious about renewable energy.

“Planning is a massive problem and has been a massive problem for 13 years, but here they seem to be saying nothing about onshore wind.

“It’s easier to build an incinerator than an onshore wind farm, it has a uniquely restrictive set of planning restrictions. If one person objects in a local area, you can’t build it.

“For them to show they’re serious about clean energy and that they’re serious about planning reform.

“This costs Yorkshire Post readers massive amounts on their bill because onshore wind is the cheapest form of power there is,” he added.

When asked why he felt the Government does not want to remove the ban, he said: “I'll be honest with you, I think he's just a weak Prime Minister. He's a prisoner of his backbenchers.”

Yesterday morning Sir Keir Starmer came under scrutiny from broadcasters over his previous pledges while running to be Labour leader, including his position on nationalisation.

His pledge made in 2020 said: “Public services should be in public hands, not making profits for shareholders.

“Support common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water; end outsourcing in our NHS, local government and justice system.”

However, Mr Miliband said that the Labour leader has now taken the correct approach in changing his view.

“The way we approach it, and the way Keir approaches it, is the right way I think, which is pragmatic value for money, they are the judgements we make.

“Speaking about energy, Keir is right to say if we spend lots and lots of public money taking things back into public ownership, people will say: “hang on, wouldn’t that money be better spent paying shareholders or clean energy or driving down bills?”.

“And that is the key insight of GB Energy [Labour’s publicly-owned energy company] and that will generate cheap renewable power for the British people.

“I look at things like this. I visited one of the largest onshore wind farms in England and Wales. Who owns it? A company called Vattenfall. Who owns Vattenfall? The Swedish government.

“So that means, good luck to Sweden, but Swedish taxpayers are benefiting from wind being generated in Wales, they’re making a profit from that and generating a profit in Sweden. We want to keep those jobs and wealth here in the UK.”