UK Politics

[Phylo]

Time to end the biomass scam: Drax, Britain's largest carbon emitter, received £1bn in subsidies last year - £2.7m a day and more than £100k an hour, which we all pay for​

Households handed over a record amount of nearly £1bn in public subsidies to Drax last year, the UK's largest carbon emitter, analysis shows.

The controversial biomass power station receives 'overly generous' payments of £2.7million a day and more than £100,000 an hour, energy think tank Ember found.

It has been the UK's biggest emitter for the past ten years and – despite its subsidies falling from next year – is expected to remain the biggest emitter until at least 2030.

Drax received a record £999million in Government subsidies – paid for through consumer bills – last year despite claims that it uses wood from virgin forests.

Incredibly, the energy is classed as renewable because the wood pellets it uses are from forests where trees are cut down and new trees are planted.

In April 2026, Drax power station entered the final twelve months of high subsidy payments under the current scheme, the think tank said.

From 2027, the subsidy available will be roughly halved to around £460million per year, beginning its phase-out, energy think tank Ember said.

However, the scale of biomass burning all but guarantees Drax will continue to be the UK's largest emitter until the end of the decade, it added.

Time to end the biomass scam: Drax received £1bn in subsidies

The controversial biomass power station receives 'overly generous' payments of £2.7million a day and more than £100,000 an hour, energy think tank Ember found.

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[Phylo]

Reform says it will deport up to 400,000 asylum seekers if it wins the next election, creating 'pop up' detention centres to hold thousands​

Up to 400,000 asylum seekers will be ‘immediately detained’ and deported if Reform win the next general election.

Revealing new details of its pledge to tighten Britain’s border controls, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK said all illegal migrants who arrived in the five years prior to the next election would be locked up.

It would include those who arrived by small boat or clandestinely in the backs of lorries, as well as those who claimed asylum using fake documents, the party said.

The figure would come on top of about 600,000 deportations Reform last year indicated it would enforce – which the party said would mostly be adults living in the UK illegally – making a grand total of one million.

A Reform government would also review all grants of asylum going back five years, leading to further deportations, it said.

Anyone who claimed asylum after overstaying a visa would be detained and deported, the party’s new policy set out.

A third category of asylum seeker - those whose home countries are now deemed to be safe - would also be stripped of their humanitarian visas and be eligible for removal.

The detention of such large numbers of people would pose a huge challenge as the current capacity of immigration removal centres is less than 3,000 beds.

But a Reform spokesman predicted many of those targeted by the new policy would choose to leave Britain voluntarily.

Reform says it will deport up to 400,000 asylum seekers

Revealing new details of its pledge to tighten Britain's border controls, Reform UK said all illegal migrants who arrived in the five years prior to the next election would be locked up.

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