Blow to Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plans as SSE slashes spending on renewables by £1.5bn

By JESSICA CLARK

Updated: 22:00 BST, 21 May 2025

One of the UK’s biggest energy companies will slash spending on renewables by £1.5billion in a major blow to Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plans.

SSE yesterday blamed policy and planning delays for the 21 per cent cut to planned green energy investment over the next five years.

The FTSE 100 firm warned it will miss its 2030 renewable energy targets in a move that threatens to derail Miliband’s decarbonisation drive.

It is the latest setback for the Energy Secretary after Danish giant Orsted this month scrapped plans for a wind farm off East Yorkshire.

SSE said: ‘The changing macroeconomic environment and wider delays to planning processes mean the group has reduced its near-term capital investment expectations.’

Total investment across all divisions will fall £3billion to £17.5billion over the next five years, with around 30 per cent of that allocated to renewables.

Blow: Energy secretary Ed Miliband (pictured) is struggling to keep Britain on track to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets

The firm, based in Perth, Scotland, will spend £5.5billion on clean energy, rather than £7billion.

The cut means SSE is now ‘unlikely’ to meet its ‘ambitious’ goal of generating 50 terawatt-hours of green energy a year by 2030, it said as it revealed its full-year results.

Profits tumbled 26 per cent from £2.49billion to £1.85billion in the year ending March 31.

Chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies, who is stepping down in July, said plans ‘evolved… to reflect the changing world around us’.

John Moore, senior investment manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, said the firm has been affected by light winds and low returns from renewable energy.

‘One-off expenses and project delays have also hit profits unexpectedly,’ he said.

It comes after Orsted said that its project, which would have had the ability to power more than a million homes, no longer made economic sense.

Drax is also set to pause an expansion of its Scottish hydro-power plant.

The firm will scale back investment in renewables despite receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said that it was ‘continuing to pave the way to becoming a clean energy superpower’.

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Blow to Ed Miliband’s Net Zero plans as SSE slashes spending on renewables by £1.5bn

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