Hannah Vickers, chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) which represents the companies who design, deliver and manage our national infrastructure, has responded to the plan for Net Zero shared today by the Prime Minister.

“This ten-point plan is recognition that in order to meet society’s Net Zero aspirations, we need tangible action. We can only ‘build back better’ from COVID-19 if our growth is cleaner and greener.

“Proposals to turn London into a green financial centre are both welcome and necessary to supporting Net Zero ambitions, but giving local government the resilience and confidence to make carbon free investments is arguably more important.

“The positive announcements on carbon capture/storage, hydrogen, nuclear, and offshore wind are areas we championed in our comprehensive spending review representation. However, doing all this in parallel, and at the same time as decarbonising our existing building stock, remains a huge challenge and we need to see the rapid implementation of these plans.”