Miliband: Clean energy the ‘patriotic case’ for cutting bills and creating good jobs

Ed Miliband will announce a major expansion of Great British Energy’s flagship scheme to cut bills for schools and hospitals, alongside new plans to guarantee that clean energy jobs are always “good jobs, with fair pay and the very best rights at work.”

At his speech at Labour Party conference tomorrow, Miliband will say the expansion, which will see 250 schools and more than 270 NHS sites fitted with solar panels, shows the “common-sense, patriotic case for clean energy that you get with a Labour government”.

He will say: ”Clean power cutting bills to help pupils and patients. This is the difference a Labour government makes; fighting for working people through our clean energy mission.”

Miliband will also unveil the government’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which will see the sector grow from 430,000 jobs today to 830,000 by 2030 – including tens of thousands of new roles for engineers, welders, electricians and construction workers.

“What is so exciting about clean energy is that it can answer that call for a different kind of economy run for working people. It offers the biggest opportunity for job creation for decades.

“Skilled jobs in proud professions. And behind these statistics is the potential for each and every one of these jobs to change the lives of working people and their communities.”

Miliband will warn that Reform’s opposition to net zero is an attack on Britain’s workers and future.

“They’ve said they would ‘wage war’ on clean energy. Let’s spell out what this war means. A war on the workers at the Siemens wind turbine factory in Hull. A war on the construction workers building carbon capture and storage in Teesside. 

“Reform’s war on the future would betray every young person in our country.”

Read the latest news, analysis and commentary on the 2025 Labour party conference in Liverpool here on LabourList.

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