​The Labour Party wants to put Britain in the lead in the world's clean energy revolution, with a huge boost to investment, based on a model seen in the US. The proposed scheme would encourage the private and public sectors to work together to stimulate investment and target new developments in the UK's most deprived areas.

Shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is travelling to the US in May to meet senior leaders of the Democrat party, and she has spoken to the Observer to explain that Labour would, in government, follow America's model of stimulating economic recovery.

She spoke about Labour's plans for a national wealth fund, which would see £8 billion of state funding used to unlock matched private investment, then used to target developments in deprived areas as part of a green industrial revival. This scheme, Reeves says, will create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs in areas outside of south-east England and London.

Jeremy Hunt will be releasing the spring budget this week and is already under pressure to prevent a mounting exodus of green energy businesses to the EU and US, jurisdictions which are already releasing incentives to encourage green businesses to their shores.

Hunt is expected to announce details of a £20 billion technology investment to slash the UK's carbon emissions, boost the country's nuclear industry and create new small nuclear reactors with modular technology.

Reeves has said that many British companies are ready to invest in clean energies, but fear that they lack the government backing to get their projects off the ground. She said that the UK had the skills, energy and capacity to be a global leader, but without a clear levelling up strategy and government support, there would be no plan or means of making it happen.