Draft Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

Parliament voted on 11 June 2025 to approve the Draft Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025, passing by 350 votes to 176. The regulations amend the existing contracts for difference (CfD) scheme, which is the principal mechanism through which the UK government supports private investment in renewable energy generation. A CfD is a financial contract that gives renewable energy developers a guaranteed price for the electricity they produce, reducing the investment risk that might otherwise deter large-scale projects.

The vote matters because CfDs are central to the government's ambition to decarbonise the electricity grid and expand clean energy capacity. By adjusting the rules governing these contracts, the regulations are designed to accelerate deployment of renewable energy projects at a time when the government has set an ambitious target of a clean power system by 2030. The changes affect energy developers, investors in renewable infrastructure, and ultimately electricity consumers and bill-payers whose energy supply depends on how quickly new generation capacity is brought online.

The division was broadly along party lines. Labour and its Co-operative Party partners provided the overwhelming majority of the 350 ayes, with only one Conservative MP voting in favour and one Labour and Co-operative MP voting against. The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party, Reform UK, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, and the Democratic Unionist Party all voted against or abstained en masse, making the 176 noes a cross-party opposition bloc. Notably, the Greens opposed despite the regulations' clean energy focus, suggesting concerns about the specific mechanisms rather than the overall direction of policy. The vote fits within a pattern of the Labour government driving its clean energy legislative agenda through the Commons over sustained opposition.