Briefing: Good news, bad news: the UK public spending review

The effects of the UK’s public spending review and national infractructured plan announcements on a range of issues – from the renewable heat incentive and feed-in tariffs to investment in carbon capture and storage and changes to the carbon reduction commitment scheme – are considered in this article. The UK government has pledged to ‘prioritise investment ruthlessly in green energy infrastructure’. It has committed to invest £200 billion in economic infrastructure over the next five years, the majority in transport and energy. Imaginative new thinking is needed on infrastructure investment and sustainable energy, supported by viable ways of making it happen.