Jeremy Hunt’s budget to announce £20bn funding to cut carbon emissions

An illustration of a Rolls-Royce small modular reactor. The government is investing £210m into the project. Photograph: Rolls Royce/Studio Archetype/Rolls-Royce/Studio Archetype

The chancellor is poised to announce a £20bn investment in technology to reduce Britain’s carbon emissions at next week’s budget, in a riposte to Joe Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act that aims to create thousands of new jobs.

Separately, the government plans to add urgency to Britain’s nuclear programme, with a competition to develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).