(Reuters) -Britain’s Treasury department is weighing cutting funding plans for state-backed power company GB Energy in a spending review slated for June, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Last year, the British government set up GB Energy, backed by 8.3 billion pounds ($10.73 billion), and envisaged it to be its primary tool to drive investment in renewable energy.
The company was expected to partner with the Crown Estate – which oversees the British monarch’s public holdings – to bring 20-30 gigawatts of new offshore wind developments to the seabed lease stage by 2030.
“We are fully committed to GB Energy, which is at the heart of our mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and to ensure homes are cheaper and cleaner to run”, a UK government spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.
GB Energy couldn’t be immediately reached out for a comment.
One of the options that the Treasury is weighing is cutting the 3.3 billion pounds previously earmarked to fund low-interest loans via local authorities for projects such as solar panels on roofs and shared-ownership wind projects, the newspaper said.
The reduction in funding comes at a time when Britain targets to largely decarbonise its power sector by 2030 by reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable power capacity.
Britain’s deputy finance minister Darren Jones said in January that the government would conduct the first zero-based review of spending in 17 years. Financial support will only be given to departments that have met the requirements set out in the zero-based government spending review.
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Gnaneshwar Rajan; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
