Energy efficiency and household bills support were to the fore in the Chancellor’s Spring budget.
Jeremy Hunt announced that Government subsidies limiting typical household energy bills to £2,500 a year would be extended for three months until the end of June.
He also pledged £200m to bring energy charges for prepayment meters into line with prices for customers paying by direct debit – something affecting four million households.
And he gave a commitment to invest £20bn over next two decades on low-carbon energy projects, with a focus on carbon capture and storage. This will start with projects from the East Coast to Merseyside to North Wales.
He said this would support up to 50,000 jobs, attract private sector investment and help capture 20-30million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
Mr Hunt further pledged to extend the Climate Change Agreement scheme for two years to allow eligible businesses £60m of tax relief on energy efficiency measures.
Nuclear power will now also be classed as “environmentally sustainable” which will give it access to the same investment incentives as renewable energy.
Launching ‘Great British Nuclear’, aimed at bringing down the costs of producing nuclear power, he said he was launching a competition for small modular reactors - and said the government would co-fund the technology if it was found to be viable.
In the sport and fitness arena he promised £63m to help leisure centres with rising swimming pool heating costs, and enable them to invest to become more energy efficient.