![\"PA](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/e554\/live\/7205cc10-e976-11ef-a9aa-95bf4aca4e1f.jpg.webp\")
PA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nPolitical reporter<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Political correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Reform UK would impose taxes on the renewable energy sector, under its plans to scrap the country’s net zero target, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice has said.<\/p>\n Tice argued net-zero policies were to blame for higher energy bills and deindustrialisation in the UK.<\/p>\n He said renewable energy was a “massive con” and promised Reform would recover money paid in subsidies to wind and solar companies.<\/p>\n “The British people are being ripped off by the renewables industry,” Tice told a news conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He suggested a “generation tax” and a “special corporation tax” would cover the costs of government funding for renewable energy.<\/p>\n “The British people need to know there is a direct link between the cost of all these subsidies to the vested interests in the renewables industry and your bills,” the Boston and Skegness MP said.<\/p>\n The party did not share further details about how the taxes would work in practice, including at what rate renewables would be taxed, or how much revenue would be raised.<\/p>\n Tice also announced plans to tax solar farms, and pass new laws to put energy cables underground rather than on pylons.<\/p>\n Reform’s deputy leader said “we will scrap net stupid zero” if the party won the next general election.<\/p>\n Currently, the rebranded Brexit Party has five MPs after winning 14% of the vote nationally in last year’s general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The party’s position on energy and net zero contrasts starkly with that of the Labour government, which wants to remove nearly all fossil fuels from UK electricity production by 2030.<\/p>\n Labour is expanding renewable energy and said in its election manifesto it would invest \u00a38.3bn in Great British Energy, a state-owned clean energy company, over five years.<\/p>\n Governments worldwide are investing in renewables to meet international climate targets and lower carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050.<\/p>\n Electricity is increasingly generated from renewable energy in the UK, and the cost of renewable generation has significantly fallen in the past decade.<\/p>\n Labour promised to bring down household energy bills by “up to \u00a3300 by 2030” – and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has stood by the pledge.<\/p>\nCooling on net zero<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n