The Treasury had hoped to cut the £13.2 billion warm homes plan, which aims to insulate properties and make them more efficient.
Ed Miliband fought off attempts to cut a net zero policy (Image: Getty)
Ed Miliband has defeated attempts by Rachel Reeves to cut a key net zero program, it has emerged.
The Treasury had hoped to cut the £13.2 billion warm homes plan, which aims to insulate properties and make them more efficient.
But Mr Miliband is said to have resisted those changes, in a huge blow to Ms Reeves and her influence in Government.
The agreement is a boost for net zero supporters in government, chief among them Mr Miliband, who have warned against scaling back green plans.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted some departments may lose out (Image: Getty)
The move will likely delight Downing Street’s critics on the left of the party, who are also preparing to revolt over proposed benefit cuts.
Critics fear the drive for net zero will send bills for consumers soaring and is vastly expensive to the Government.
Ms Reeves, in a speech in Rochdale, had warned Cabinet colleagues “not every department will get everything that they want next week” as she has had to “say no” to things that she would support in an ideal world.
But Mr Miliband was able to reach a settlement after months of tense negotiations.
The warm homes plan is an initiative to lift more than 1 million households out of fuel poverty by 2030, reducing energy bills as well as making houses more energy-efficient.
It includes investment to insulate homes – thereby making them more energy-efficient – and grants for heat pumps.
Labour promised an extra £6.6 billion for the plan in its general election manifesto last summer, taking the total to be spent on the program to £13.2 billion.
But it is another blow to Rachel Reeves after she confirmed a partial u-turn on winter fuel cuts.
Not all retirees will have the benefit restored, she said.
In another day of chaos over the policy, neither Ms Reeves nor Sir Keir Starmer would say when the exact details of the change would be announced or how many people it would affect.
And Pensions Minister Tortsten Bell delivered a further kick in the teeth when he claimed there were no extra elderly deaths as result of the cut and that less pensioners died than usual.
Ms Reeves announced the winter fuel cut just weeks after Labour swept to power last July.
The payment, worth up to £300 to help with energy bills during the coldest months, was paid only to those on pension credit last year, but the policy was widely blamed for the party’s dismal local election results.
