How Much Does The UK Govt Spend On Net Zero

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

We looked at the new Spending Review, which has allocated £45.1 billion to Mad Miliband’s DESNZ to spend in the next four years.

I thought I would also try to put some costings on other Government expenditure which is devoted to the pursuit of Net Zero.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html#departmental-settlements

The Spending Review gives some clues:

1. £2.6 billion over Phase 2 (2026/27 to 2029/30) for decarbonising transport
2. £2.3 billion for local transport “improvements”, including cycle lanes and bus lanes, again over Phase 2
3. £2.7 billion a year for sustainable farming and nature recovery.
4. The Renewable Heat Incentive at £1.3 billion a year.

In addition there is international climate aid, which will be funded out of the Official Development Assistance budget. This has been running at over £3 billion a year for this year and last.

Then there is revenue foregone by the refusal to make EV drivers pay their proper share of car tax. Fuel duties currently bring around £24 billion a year. Currently there are about 1.5 million BEVs on the road, 5% of the total; so the Treasury is already losing about £1 billion in revenue. By 2030, the number of electric cars could potentially rise to 7 million, leaving a blackhole of £5 million a year.

There are many other costs incurred which are simply impossible to quantify or remain hidden from public view. For instance:

• The Affordable Homes Programme, which includes funding for energy efficient homes
• Local Government Funding, some of which is channelled to decarbonisation initiative
• Electric ambulances
• £15.6 billion for local transport in cities
• Decarbonisation of public buildings, paid for through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
• Decarbonisation of defence

I have been alerted to one particular example of that last item, which I intend to explore more fully this week

At the Trooping of the Colours, the RAF apparently announced that the Red Arrows were using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for the first time. We know SAF is considerably more expensive than conventional fuel, which begs the question of how much this will cost the MOD if it is rolled across the whole of the RAF.

The implication is that it could potentially cost billions.

This little story sadly is just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of other examples could be found of how the government is throwing away taxpayer money on green virtue signalling.

This is not, of course, the full cost of Net Zero – it is just the amount spent by central government itself. Local Government is frittering more away, while the public and the business sector is faced with ever increasing punitive costs.

But even the quantifiable costs above add up to £24 billion a year,  excluding Sizewell C. And this does include the cost of subsidising renewable energy, which is paid for via our electricity bills.