The chancellor of the exchequer set out her vision for the UK’s economic growth, calling net zero the “industrial opportunity of the 21st Century”. Image: Lauren Hurley / No. 10 Downing Street via Flickr.

The government-backed National Wealth Fund will invest in Cornish Metals, which could mine critical minerals needed for solar panel production.

Economic growth is the number one mission of this government, “without which we cannot meet climate goals”, Rachel Reeves said in a speech delivered on Wednesday (29 January).

The chancellor of the exchequer set out her vision for the UK’s economic growth, calling net zero the “industrial opportunity of the 21st Century”.

Moving onto the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which the government is set to publish in spring, Reeves said she is “genuinely shocked” by how slowly the UK planning system moves.

Evidencing this point, she referenced the the 500MW solar-plus-storage Sunnica Energy Farm, one of three solar national significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) that energy secretary Ed Miliband approved in July 2024, despite the government having been aware of the proposals (for Sunnica) since 2021.

Efforts to accelerate the planning system have seen the government implement a rule change to stop “cynical” legal challenges getting in the way of its Plan for Change. This followed prime minister Keir Starmer’s pledge to streamline the approval process of 150 major infrastructure projects as a reiteration of the government’s commitment to clean power.

The headline announcement was that the government’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) will invest £65 million in EV charging platform Connected Kerb and £28 million equity investment into Cornish Metals, which will look to mine critical minerals which are used to produce solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Reeves said that the NWF was created because the state has a “crucial role to play” in securing the investment necessary for the renewable energy industry’s growth. The investment set for Cornish Metals will help the tin mining company reestablish activities in the South West. It was closed in 1998, and its reopening is hoped to create around 300 jobs.

NWF CEO John Flint said of the investment: “Critical minerals are not only an important driver of the UK’s transition to net zero, but also of the UK’s growth mission, providing opportunities to anchor important supply chains in the UK.”

More information on the growth speech delivered by Rachel Reeves is available on our sister site, Current±, where this article was originally published.