Andy Burnham calls on government to support city-region’s net zero ambitions

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has written to the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, inviting him to back the city-region’s plans to invest in achieving its net zero ambitions.

Speaking to delegates at the Greater Manchester Green Summit yesterday (17th October), Andy Burnham warned that the city-region is at growing risk of missing its 2038 target for achieving net zero without support from central government to invest in bringing forward new technologies and building the green skills base. Recent policy decisions in Westminster, including reopening fracking for shale gas, and restricting the expansion solar energy mean that the UK as a whole is also increasingly likely to miss its 2050 target.

The Mayor has written to the new Chancellor asking him to back Greater Manchester’s plans to build 30,000 net zero carbon homes for social rent, and retrofit thousands more, as a way of stimulating regional economic growth. He argues the best growth is green growth as the jobs created will last for the rest of the century: Net Zero North West estimates that 85,000 new jobs could be created in Greater Manchester through a major home retrofitting programme. 

To remain on-track to reach net zero carbon by 2038, the region will need to deliver the following measures over the next five years:

• 140,000 homes with fabric retrofit 
• Nearly 2 GW of additional rooftop solar panels on homes
• 8,000 additional homes connected to heat networks 
• 116,000 additional heat pumps in homes

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: 

“Greater Manchester is famous for its history as an industrial pioneer and we are ready to lead the next Industrial Revolution for the UK. But we urgently need full Government backing for our 2038 target.

“Our plan to build 30,000 net zero carbon homes for social rent will create new jobs in green construction and green energy as well as solving the housing crisis. It is the right investment in the country’s future, and will create a template for other areas to follow, but we need to move now.

“Trapping the North of England in a backward-looking debate about fracking is the worst thing the Government could do at this time. It’s not enough for the Government to talk about growth – they must specifically prioritise green growth as green jobs will last the rest of the century.”