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Reform UK has told the private-sector backers of the Peak Cluster carbon capture and storage scheme that it will block planning applications for the project if the party gets into government.
The warning came in a letter from Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, and the Reform leaders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire county councils.
The letter said the proposed pipeline would “cut through swathes of greenbelt land, desecrating the countryside” and would interfere with wildlife and sites of special scientific interest. The signatories called the scheme a “net zero vanity project”, the cost of which would “balloon astronomically before the project’s completion”.
Tice, who has previously urged the energy industry to abandon net zero targets, has also warned renewable developers that subsidies would be withdrawn under a Reform government.
What the project involves
Peak Cluster is designed to capture carbon dioxide from four cement and lime producers on three sites in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and to transport and store it beneath the Irish Sea. Cement production is one of the single biggest contributors to global warming.
Carbon capture technology would be fitted to Holcim’s Cauldon plant, Tarmac’s Tunstead cement plant, Buxton Lime’s Tunstead lime plant and Breedon’s Hope plant.
The carbon dioxide would be carried through a 125-mile underground pipeline to Morecambe Net Zero, a storage facility off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness operated as a joint venture between Spirit Energy and its shareholders Centrica, the FTSE 100 energy group, and Stadtwerke München.
Peak Cluster says the scheme would prevent more than 3m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year entering the atmosphere, and that 40 per cent of the UK’s cement and lime is produced in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
The National Wealth Fund, the state investment vehicle that said in January it would raise its annual investment to about £5bn, announced a £28.6m cornerstone investment in the project in July 2025.
The total £59.6m equity raise also includes investment through a joint venture between a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation and Progressive Energy, as well as Tarmac, part of CRH, Breedon, the London-listed group, Holcim, the Swiss multinational, and SigmaRoc, the AIM-listed company which owns Buxton Lime.
Backers defend the scheme
David Parkin, chief executive of Peak Cluster, said the UK had to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, adding: “Cancelling Peak Cluster would put a vital British industry at greater risk and leave us vulnerable to a dependency on imported cement and lime.
“We believe the right response to the challenges facing the UK is to invest in our own industry, right here in Britain, not walk away from it.”
The project’s backers have said it will help secure the future of Britain’s cement and lime industries, creating jobs, cutting reliance on imports and providing building material for hospitals, homes and rail, as well as essential minerals to purify tap water and maintain healthy soil.
O’Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, has said that “by transforming the Morecambe gasfields into the UK’s largest carbon store, Spirit Energy will provide the critical infrastructure needed to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries like cement and lime”.
John Egan, the then chief executive of Peak Cluster, said in January, when an initial consultation was launched, that it would be the world’s largest cement and lime decarbonisation project.
“With cement imports having tripled in the last 20 years, and domestic production at its lowest level since the 1950s, there has never been a greater need to build a resilient, sustainable supply,” he said.
Amy Ingham
Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.
