Over four-fifths of voters want green industrial growth to boost economy

A new poll conducted by Opinium, commissioned by RenewableUK, shows that an overwhelming majority of UK voters (82 per cent) believe that the growth of green industries is important for the growth of Britain’s economy.

The percentage is even higher among swing voters who supported the Conservatives in 2019 and are currently planning to switch to Labour, at 88 per cent.

The Chancellor has set out five priority sectors for the economy, including green industries. When asked which of these is most likely to encourage growth in the UK economy overall, more than twice as many people thought green industries would have the biggest positive impact on than any other sector, including life sciences, digital tech and advanced manufacturing (36 per cent compared to 4-16 per cent for other sectors).

The vast majority of the public (75 per cent) said they would see any failure to secure investment in renewable energy and factories to manufacture green tech such as wind turbine components as a missed opportunity for the UK. This rises to 83 per cent of Conservative to Labour swing voters.

Increasing investment in renewable energy has similarly high levels of public support (71 per cent), but only 40 per cent of people believe the Conservative Party have even partially delivered on this.

However, around a third of voters (32 per cent) and 45 per cent of Conservative to Labour swing voters think the Tories have become less proactive in securing investment in green industries under Rishi Sunak, with over three quarters of them (78 per cent and 77 per cent respectively) less likely to support the Conservative Party as a result.

Furthermore, 31 per cent of voters believe the Conservative Party has prioritised investment in oil and gas over renewable energy in the past six months. Of these voters, 67 per cent, now have a less favourable view of the Conservatives. This perception is more prevalent among Conservative to Labour swing voters, with 45 per cent believing the Conservative Party has focused more on oil and gas than renewables in the last six months, and 77 per cent of them having a less favourable view of the party as a result.

RenewableUK’s Director of Strategic Communications Nathan Bennett said:

“This new polling demonstrates very clearly that people see the success of green industries as vital to the UK’s economic growth. New green industries like offshore wind are bringing tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds of investment to communities across the UK, as well as low cost clean power.

“Although we welcome the Prime Minister re-iterating his support for green industries in his net zero speech, this has to be backed up with tangible measures to make the UK more attractive market for green investment or we will see factories and jobs which could have been in the UK go overseas. This polling shows not only that there is a wealth of public support for new incentives to secure renewable energy projects and manufacturing, but that people be would disappointed if we fail to secure these investments.

“It would seem that the government’s failure to secure new offshore wind projects in this year’s clean power auctions and their lack of a response to the measures being offered to the USA and the EU to attract investment in renewables have been noticed by a significant proportion of the public, who now think Ministers have been less focused on securing renewable energy investment under Rishi Sunak. It’s not too late for the Prime Minister to restore market confidence and the UK’s leadership in offshore wind, but the government is clearly going to have to bring forward new measures to achieve this.”

The Conservative MP Sir Alok Sharma, President of the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021 said:

“The Prime Minister’s recent call for the UK to embrace the incredible opportunities of green industry with even greater enthusiasm is clearly backed by people across the country.

“However, attracting inwards green investment does require further action and I therefore look forward to the Government’s promised response in the Autumn Statement to the US’s Inflation Reduction Act which is hoovering up many billions of pounds of private sector investment and causing some companies to think about prioritising expanding in the US ahead of the UK.”