Steve Race

I absolutely agree; the Celtic sea has massive potential for the reindustrialisation of our peninsula as well. In Hull, my home town, wind power has provided a huge number of new jobs in lieu of others that were there in the past. I want to talk about our innovators, who are too often held back by a system that is not keeping pace with the urgency of the challenges we face. Time and again, climate tech companies tell us that regulation is the single biggest barrier to scaling and deploying tech—not access to capital or talent, though those matter, but regulation. One founder I spoke to this morning said that he is deploying his tech in Estonia, Morocco and elsewhere, and that it was easier to do so in those countries than in the UK, despite his not speaking a word of Estonian or Arabic. Our regulatory framework is, at times, more focused on managing legacy risks than delivering future solutions. If we are serious about delivering on this carbon budget, we must fundamentally change how the system works. Regulation should not simply be a system to police compliance; it should reward carbon reduction and enable innovation. That means embedding climate innovation outcomes into the mandates of our key regulators—Ofgem, the Environment Agency, the Office for Nuclear Regulation and others—and ensuring that they have the flexibility and tools to adapt in real time. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 was a welcome step, introducing statutory timelines and embedding net zero into the decision making, but on the ground progress is still too slow. Developers still face years of delay and inconsistent decisions across local authorities. If we are to meet the scale and pace required by carbon budget 7, we must go further. We should look at a national net zero test for planning decisions that provides consistency and clarity. We should also have a climate fast-track for essential infrastructure such as electric vehicle charging, solar power and battery storage. That could help to unlock projects that are critical to reducing emissions and lowering costs for consumers. We must also address bottlenecks in emerging sectors such as nuclear. Small modular reactors can play a vital role in our clean energy mix, but the current licensing timelines, stretching to over a decade, are incompatible with the urgency of the challenges we face. By embracing digital licensing, fast-tracked siting, and regulatory sandboxes, we can significantly accelerate deployment while maintaining the highest of safety standards. Encouragingly, we have already seen that that is possible. The creation of the Regulatory Innovation Office was a bold, forward-thinking step. Its sandbox approach is now helping regulators and innovators work in new ways, testing, adapting and accelerating solutions in real time. Feedback suggests that not only is this model effective, but it has been transformational. If it continues to prove successful—and I believe that it will—we should expand this approach across more sectors, embedding carbon reduction at its core. The Government have set the destination, and this carbon budget provides a credible and vital milestone along that journey, but to reach it we must ensure that our regulation keeps pace with our best and brightest. Our climate tech companies can get us there, but only if we help them to help us.