U.K. Budget to Include Funds for Low-Carbon Industries

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD
U.K. Treasury Chief Alistair Darling is set to announce around £500 million in spending aimed at promoting low-carbon industries in his budget on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said.
This investment will match a similar amount of money announced in Mr. Darling's so-called pre-budget report in November.
The so-called "green" investment will be used to promote energy efficiency in homes and businesses as well as support for low-carbon technologies that are being developed in the U.K and are close to being marketed. The government has singled out green technologies as being an industry it wants to focus on. It estimates that by 2015 the sector can grow by £45 billion to £150 billion and employ 1.3 million people.
Mr. Darling faces a tricky balancing act in this year's spending plan. He has to come up with measures that will help prop up the U.K.'s ailing economy and deal with the consequences, such as unemployment, while not adding to an already large debt burden.
The government has said, for instance, that it will announce measures to help those who have lost their job. In an interview with the Observer newspaper on Sunday, Mr. Darling also said that a long mooted scheme to help kick off the country's mortgage market by guaranteeing bonds that bundle up these securities will be worth £50 billion.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com