Thank you to all those who have contacted me about Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan.

I completely understand concerns about the reworking of the Green Prosperity Plan. To be clear, if the country was still in the same economic state as it was in 2021, we would not need to update this policy.

The Green Prosperity Plan remains at the core of Labour’s mission to grow the economy and deliver clean power by 2030. It will be a central plank of our manifesto.

We will put tens of billions of pounds of private sector investment into green hydrogen, carbon capture, clean steel, renewable-ready ports and gigafactories – unlocked through a new National Wealth Fund to create half a million good, well-paid jobs. We will insulate five million homes, cutting up to £500 from household energy bills. We will launch Great British Energy, a new, publicly-owned champion in clean energy generation that will deliver long-term energy security by investing in floating offshore wind, nuclear and tidal.

However, since Keir first announced this policy, the circumstances in our country have changed. Because of the Conservative’s mismanagement of the economy and the implications of Liz Truss’ disastrous time as Prime Minister, we must be realistic about what will be immediately possible if we become the next government.

This means we can be under no illusion about the scale of the challenge facing us. Taxes are at a seventy year high, our public services are on their knees, the national debt is continuing to rise, and the cost-of-living crisis is still biting for families across our country. If we win the next election, it will be our responsibility to turn the country’s back on years of Conservative decline. This starts with fixing our broken economy.

I want to be clear about our goals in government. While the economic circumstances may have changed, Labour’s ambitions have not. The plan we have announced is the right thing for our economy and for our environment. It is consistent with our fiscal rules, including our plan to get debt down as a share of GDP, and our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 and to tackle climate change.

This is not the political inheritance I would have chosen for us, but it is the inheritance we face if we are elected. We will still be able to double the investment into warm homes, but this will be slower than we had originally hoped. We will not reach £28 billion a year during the next Parliament, but we will invest a further £23.7 billion over five years, on top of the £50 billion already committed.

Thank you again to all those who have contacted me.