The chancellor insisted there would be a clear distinction between the NWF and GB Energy, another publicly owned company proposed by Labour. While GB Energy will focus on the “production of clean, low carbon energy”, investment made via the NWF will seek to deploy £1.8bn to ports, £1.5bn for gigafactories including for electric vehicles, £2.5bn to clean steel, £1bn for carbon capture and £500m to green hydrogen.
Reeves said the new government was in a prime position to attract investment, amid ongoing political uncertainty in other major western economies. That includes the US, where Donald Trump is due to challenge an under-fire Joe Biden in the November presidential elections, and France, where elections resulted in a hung parliament.
“I think for the first time in a long time investors will look at Britain and say it’s a country with a stable government. It’s got a clear plan, but clear mandate in the election. And that’s different from some other countries around the world today,” Reeves told journalists.
So, it’s gonna make a profit, right? Green steel, ports, gigfactories, they’re all gonna make a profit, right?
Off topic but Spud is getting all excited about the ‘success’ of his budding YouTube career (I’m sure this is what he is turning to having run out of gullible charities to grift grants from. He mentioned a while back about ‘monetising’ his efforts).
So let’s look at his success. Spud has had a total of just over 1 million views of all of his videos. He has 13.1k subscribers.
Count Binface’s most popular video (just the most popular one) has had 2.2m views.
He has 73.8k subscribers.
Obviously carbon capture isn’t going to make a profit, except in the fuzzy world of climate accounting. So that’s £1bn wasted which could have been spent on teachers & nurses (or lower taxes, hah).
The ports need space to expand, which means building on the greenbelt, which isn’t going to happen. So they’ll get precious little for their £1.8bn “investment”.
Gigafactories – we tried those, we got some lovely CGI renderings of a factory, and that’s all. China can build batteries for a fraction of the price that we can, and they’re getting cheaper by the day. The technology itself keeps evolving, so which horse will the government back? li-ion, na-ion, mg-ion, solid-state, etc.? Another £1.5bn wasted.
Let’s be clear, the National Wealth Fund is just a slush fund for pet projects. The fund will be spent, and there’ll be no wealth to show for it.
“I think for the first time in a long time investors will look at Britain and say it’s a country with a stable government.”
The Delusion is strong in this one…
I’m only surprised that the generous Labour and Just Stop Oil benefactor Dale Vince hasn’t been put in charge of either project as he certainly knows how to make a tidy profit out of green energy.
“Reeves said the new government was in a prime position to attract investment, amid ongoing political uncertainty in other major western economies. ”
Yes, there’s no uncertainty about our new government. Ushered in on a third of the vote, promising money to everyone, dependent on future growth, alienating both the industrial proletariat and the Muslims, and offering to house the world’s homeless. Rock solid.
Car making, even EV car making just isn’t a future industry for the UK or the Western EU. The production we have is because of investments made decades ago, factories built when Mrs Thatch was in power. So probably still add up compared to other places where you’d have to build a factory but if you have to build a factory, other places are cheaper.
BYD just announced a factory in Turkey, and are considering Hungary as well: https://www.ft.com/content/248743c8-0f97-4d26-85c5-28ebbf9bc327.
I know everyone has a boner for general car making, but it ain’t going to happen in the UK. These places have cheaper workers. Same as Renault and Toyota making cars in Turkey, Audi making more cars in Slovakia, Fiat making most of their 500s in Poland. Britain, France, Germany, Italy are just too expensive.
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with your pessimism regarding UK car manufacture. With labour costs, they shouldn’t be a barrier. They don’t have to be a large part of the input. Except, with any UK company, you can virtually guarantee that for every bod on the factory floor participating in making product there’ll be another two or three administering & managing at a far higher pay rate. The target for most UK companies is to create the maximum deadweight at the top.
I would think the biggest obstacle in the UK would be energy costs & going forward reliability of supply. And regulatory compliance.
” Spud has had a total of just over 1 million views of all of his videos. He has 13.1k subscribers.”
Spuds getting way less than 5k views for his videos mainly, with an occasional breakout video hitting 10-20k. My mate who makes videos about his wild camping trips, among other things, does far better than that, with 50k subscribers and his videos all hitting 5k, often 10K within a month. Some of his older videos are over 100k views. Perhaps he should start telling everyone how to run the country, he’s obviously far more popular than Spud. And to be frank would make an infinitely better job of it too.
“I think for the first time in a long time investors will look at Britain and say it’s a country with a stable government. It’s got a clear plan, but clear mandate in the election.”
David “Mastermind” Lammy is Foreign Secretary, for Pete’s sake. We can only imagine what kind of addlepated mouth-breathing numbskulls got the lesser jobs. And you lot managed to win fewer votes than Jeremy bleedin’ Corbyn.
This country’s government only looks competent and stable when it’s standing next to France and the US.
Labour received a significantly lower vote share than Le Pen’s National Rally.
I guess “clear mandates” only exist if the correct team gets them.
From the Graun (so it must be true….)
“While it is hoped that the schemes funded will generate an annual return for taxpayers, there is no guarantee – as with any investment – that the money will be recouped.
The Treasury has not said how much it hopes to make from its investments, though if the UK Infrastructure Bank’s own targets are any indication, it could be in the range of 2.5% to 4%.”
With the investments envisaged, I’d say even that was, ahem, ambitious…
And with gilts offering 4% guaranteed, why would anyone invest?
Depends what you mean by carbon capture. Retrofitting CCS to CCGT plant is ridiculously expensive and will never justify costs. Building new Allam cycle plant and using some to all of the bled off CO₂ as feedstock for industrial process may make some money over and above that charged for generation…
Depends what you mean by carbon capture. Retrofitting CCS to CCGT plant is ridiculously expensive and will never justify costs. Building new Allam cycle plant and using some to all of the bled off CO₂ as feedstock for industrial process may make some money over and above that charged for generation…
If there is a good, guaranteed return on my investment – and let’s be clear, the government is keen enough at this early stage in the electoral cycle to show how great it is, how its stability attracts real investors like moths – then of course I’ll invest in the GB Energy Company. You poor sods will be paying me back from your taxes for well over a decade, but there you go. Toodle pip.
Canada says “hold my beer…”
BIS,
“I wouldn’t necessarily agree with your pessimism regarding UK car manufacture. With labour costs, they shouldn’t be a barrier. They don’t have to be a large part of the input. Except, with any UK company, you can virtually guarantee that for every bod on the factory floor participating in making product there’ll be another two or three administering & managing at a far higher pay rate. The target for most UK companies is to create the maximum deadweight at the top.”
There’s probably more people off the factory floor now because of how much robotics there is. But they’re doing things like materials testing, quality control and supply chain management. In my experience of Honda, there wasn’t a whole lot of wanky management. I think it was one of the best managed companies I’ve ever worked in. But one factor in that is that factories are like kryptonite to useless powerskirts.
…investment made via the NWF will seek to deploy £1.8bn to ports, £1.5bn for gigafactories including for electric vehicles, £2.5bn to clean steel, £1bn for carbon capture and £500m to green hydrogen…
Very forthcoming of Labour to publicly announce which black holes they will be shoveling money into. My personal favorite is the EV gigafactory… Just what Britain needs; a large, inefficient factory building EVs on the off days when there isn’t a strike for a market that is already plagued by overcapacity. And if you wogs build EVs with the same sort of care that made Lucas Electric a byword for quality, reliable electrical subsystems for autos, well, then, what could possibly go wrong?
BiS – I would think the biggest obstacle in the UK would be energy costs & going forward reliability of supply. And regulatory compliance.
Yarp. We can’t compete in manufacturing with the second highest electricity bills on the planet plus thousands of gold-plated regulations enforced by our parasitic class.
That’s why the EU has unwisely decided to get into a trade war with the world’s only manufacturing superpower.
This country’s government only looks competent and stable when it’s standing next to France and the US.
Wogs are so cute when they fuck up. We’re getting ready to throw the brain-damaged ones out of office. You, on the other hand, just voted them in. And given that you had the Tories in place, that’s saying something.
Yup, we’ll enter Greenie heaven with a heat pump in every back garden and an EV in every garage.
Has anyone told the stupid cunts that there won’t be anywhere near enough capacity to generate electricity, transmit it, and distribute it?
For God’s sake, drill in the North Sea.
“For god’s sake, drill in the North Sea”
Well yeah.
Drilling on land might be a goer too. A one acre frack pad to produce lovely gas all ready to use would ruin far less countryside than giant windmills, enormous pylons and square miles of solar farms on arable land.
But reasons…
Beaker? You have an explanation? Let’s hear it.
‘Yarp. We can’t compete in manufacturing with the second highest electricity bills on the planet plus thousands of gold-plated regulations enforced by our parasitic class.’
Steve. Why does your comment remind me of Oz??
If it is gonna make a profit the govt wouldnt need to do it.
So why, philosphically, should the govt do it?
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