If the Government wants growth, it cannot pull the plug on Humber carbon capture and hydrogen - Richard Gwilliam

The Prime Minister has made good growth in every postcode the defining priority of his government, promising regional reindustrialisation, stronger British supply chains and good jobs across the country.

The Humber offers an immediate opportunity to turn that ambition into reality. But it will require some hard decisions, not declarations.

Cutting support for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen puts the investment, jobs and industrial renewal the Prime Minister wants at risk. This is not simply an environmental commitment. It is central to the government’s growth mission.

The Humber has powered Britain for generations, underpinning sovereign energy and industry. Our ports, refineries, steelworks, chemical plants, power stations and manufacturers form one of the country’s most strategically important industrial ecosystems.

The region generates around 20 per cent of the UK’s electricity, a third of its refined products and contains the UK’s largest port complex by tonnage. Manufacturing accounts for roughly a quarter of regional GVA, supporting more than 55,000 direct manufacturing jobs.

CCUS and hydrogen can help existing industries remain competitive and drive growth. They can replace a cycle of industrial closures with one of investment, modernisation and growth - attracting international capital for energy intensive industries, including manufacturing and AI.

Research commissioned by the Humber Energy Board found that prioritising the region could enable up to £44bn of private investment across CCS, hydrogen and wind, deliver up to £6bn in additional GVA each year and catalyse more than 20,000 new local jobs.

This is not an economy that needs to be invented. It is an industrial base that needs to be renewed, taking the region’s unique strengths, our globally recognised, long-standing plans for industrial decarbonisation and making the Humber the engine of UK growth, energy security and industrial sovereignty.

These plans represent factories with a future, contracts for British businesses, protection of vital sovereign industries, apprenticeships for young people and skilled work in communities that have too often watched investment flow elsewhere.

Public support does not mean government funding every pound of every project. It means giving companies the confidence to invest their own capital. This is not a means to an end – it’s catalytic investment, turbo-charging transformative growth and building a stronger, more resilient and sustainable economy.

That’s the opportunity: government provides certainty and targeted support; industry invests, develops supply chains and creates jobs.

Withdrawing support now could strand work already undertaken, deter private capital and encourage companies to invest elsewhere. The Prime Minister cannot ask businesses to invest for the long term if government policy operates only for the short term.

This is also about retaining British skills and industrial capabilities. CCS and hydrogen require engineers, welders, pipefitters, process operators and construction workers. The Humber already has these foundations. CATCH is expanding training across a range of high-skilled roles, with an ambition to train 1,000 new entrants to industry each year by 2029.

Government certainty allows employers and training providers to plan together and give young people confidence that these skills will lead to real jobs.

The choice is not between industry and decarbonisation. Britain’s industrial base will not remain competitive as international markets demand lower-carbon products.

Without CCS and hydrogen, production and investment could move overseas, costing Britain jobs and offshoring emissions.

The Humber has the industrial sites, ports, workforce, private-sector projects and access to the carbon storage needed to translate policy into economic activity. What it needs now is certainty.

Maintaining support would demonstrate that the Prime Minister’s commitment to reindustrialisation is more than rhetoric. It would show investors that Britain can deliver major infrastructure, and make the Humber the national model for regional industrial growth.

If the UK needs growth, private investment and good British jobs, the UK government should back the Humber and give its CCS and hydrogen projects the certainty to build.

Richard Gwilliam is chair of the Humber Energy Board.