How Labour could keep its £28bn-a-year green promise

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, delivers a speech at the Labour conference on 27 September 2021 in Brighton, where she announced that the party would spend £28bn a year on tackling the climate crisis. Photograph: Getty

Your editorial (9 June) is correct to call Rachel Reeves’ retreat from her £28bn annual commitment on green investment an example of the renewal of a failed economic consensus. This has seen Labour aping Jeremy Hunt’s ludicrous emphasis on reducing the national debt. Instead, Labour must become leader of a pack of opposition parties all demanding a massive increase in expenditure on social and green infrastructure, and on the wages and conditions of those working in these areas. One recent estimate suggests that to achieve this, the next government will need to invest £220bn per year.

All opposition parties should promise the next parliament will use its powers to provide the money needed to fix broken Britain. This can come from three sources. First, the estimated £55bn a year of tax breaks for pension savers must be redesigned to support employment-creating investment with social and environmental goals, as should some of the £70bn a year saved tax-free in Isas – a much-needed exercise in intergenerational solidarity.