Top priorities for the 2024 Autumn Budget – The Procode wishlist
On 30 October, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachael Reeves will journey from 11 Downing Street after a photocall with the famous red despatch box to take the short journey to the House of Commons where she will deliver Labour’s first Budget in 14 years. The British people and the country’s businesses, as well as the financial markets, will be keen to hear what she has to say.
Ahead of the Autumn Budget 2024, there are already some clues of where some of the announcements may come. “Sources”, which often means those in or close to the Government, suggest that the Chancellor needs to find £40 billion in tax rises and spending cuts to implement the Government’s plans.
Aside from these, we have our own wishlist of things for the Chancellor to include when she gets up to speak on 30 October.
Focus on renewables
In the Labour election manifesto, the party pledged to “double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030” as well as investing in “carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy”.
The Autumn Budget should firm up these manifesto commitments while at the same time addressing problems that additional renewables will exacerbate, such as improving connections to the national grid. The country’s planning rules will also need revisiting to enable this critical infrastructure to be brought online.
One move the Chancellor should consider is reintroducing super-deductions. Between April 2021 and March 2023, investors benefitted from a 130% capital allowances on investment in qualifying plant and machinery. This included investment in solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, and building management systems.
The Government should also consider the introduction of a renewable energy ISA to boost individual investment in the sector as well as tax incentives for energy companies adding renewable generation capacity to work towards Net Zero.
Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund
The Labour Party had already outlined its plans to establish Great British Energy before it was elected in July 2024 and within a few weeks had detailed its plans further through a speech by Ed Milliband, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, which outlined that the organisation would be based in Scotland and work closely with The Crown Estate.
On 14 October, the government released a briefing on the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which is intended to be “a cornerstone of this government’s strategy to catalyse investment into clean energy industries” and is intended to act as an “impact investor” where an undersupply in private finance exists.
GBE and NWF are set to “collaborate and complement each other”, according to the government.
The Government should use the Autumn Budget to outline a firm timeline for the introduction of GBE and NWF and how they will work together in practice as well which will give the energy sector better clarity for the future.
Social care
In the election manifesto, the Labour Party said it would undertake a programme of reform of social care “to create a National Care Service, underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country”. The service would be locally delivered and “with a principle of ‘home first’ that supports people to live independently for as long as possible”.
This is something that Procode’s sister company Canary Care is spearheading. Canary Care already works with more than 100 local authorities, NHS organisations and care providers to support home-first care provision for families.
Canary Care uses a sophisticated, yet easy-to-install and use, package of technology to monitor the activity of vulnerable people in their own homes, including bathroom visits, sleep, temperature, and visitors to the home. Unlike some intrusive systems, Canary Care does not use microphones or cameras, giving people dignity and privacy in their own homes.
The simplicity yet detailed insight provided by this product means people are able to leave hospital, reducing the number of blocked beds, and live in an assisted way in their own home for as long as possible.
The Canary Care system helps ease the pressure on finite public resources, saving hundreds of thousands every year, if scaled out it would easily save millions.
The Autumn Budget 2024 needs to provide greater clarity on how the National Care Service will be funded and the role Government expects technology companies and electricity suppliers to play in its delivery.
The smart meter rollout
The rollout of smart meters is slowing down, according to statistics from Ofgem. While in opposition, the Labour party said it supported a shift of responsibility for the installation of smart meters from energy suppliers to distribution network operators.
We are fully committed to the concept of smart meters and believe they have a vital role to play in delivering lower bills for consumers and enabling the country to meet its net zero ambitions.
Procode’s Smart Datastream provides businesses with access to all enabled smart meters in the UK, and the power of this data and the good it can do, will only grow with increased installations. The government should announce measures to ensure that smart meters remain smart, and installation of smart meters is increased, so that public confidence in their ability to help householders and businesses to save money is not undermined.