Projects in Teesside, Merseyside and North Wales have been prioritised, and grant funding for the Viking project has been protected. Acorn has been left without a confirmed funding commitment. Ministers say they are exploring whether private investment, government loans or equity funding could support its future development.

The decision raises serious questions about the project’s future. Acorn was promised government support by energy secretary Ed Miliband in June 2025, when he declared that ministers were “putting their money where their mouth is”.

Russell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (AGCC), said the decision was “yet another hammer blow for the North-east Scotland economy”. He noted that it came only a year after the former Energy Secretary pledged to back Acorn, protecting 15,000 North Sea jobs.

“All talk, no action, like so much of the transition we were promised by this government,” Mr Borthwick said. He described the decision as “an abject betrayal” of the commitment, and said communities in a region that has powered the UK’s energy and economic security for decades are left to face “inaction and indifference from our political class”.

He pointed to the north-east’s pipeline of oil and gas and offshore wind projects and its subsea engineering supply chain, and called on the UK Government to approve Rosebank and other oil and gas projects. The resulting revenues, he said, should be used to “turbocharge renewables” across the region and deliver the managed and just transition that has been promised. “Anything less would be unforgiveable,” he said.

Adrian Johnston, tax manager at Aberdeen-based accountants MHA, said no replacement package has been confirmed, despite the government exploring loan or equity investment. The withdrawal, he said, is “a significant setback” that leaves Acorn’s future uncertain and undermines business confidence in the region’s energy transition.

John Wilkinson, chief operating officer at BAM UK & Ireland, welcomed the UK’s £718 billion infrastructure pipeline as “an enormous opportunity for economic growth”, but said funding announcements “must be matched by clear delivery plans”. A reliable pipeline, he said, gives businesses the confidence to recruit, train and invest.

He highlighted the sector’s workforce challenge, with the construction industry needing an average of 41,200 additional workers every year to 2030. Businesses need certainty to invest in apprenticeships, training and long-term careers, he said.

Mr Wilkinson also called for infrastructure to be planned and funded “as a connected system”, with new homes delivered alongside the schools, healthcare, transport and utilities communities rely on. He added that community benefit and nature recovery should be considered from the outset rather than treated as “an afterthought”.

“The real measure of this Budget will be what gets built, not just what gets announced,” he said.

Richard Whitehead, chief executive for Europe and India at AECOM, said the Budget “makes some positive moves” but “also raises some questions”. He welcomed the extra capital committed to the National Wealth Fund as the kind of stimulus that will boost investor and client confidence, and said the will exists to move quickly.

He said further devolution will drive infrastructure delivery, and that moves on mayoral capacity are welcome. However, he argued that a formal framework is needed to unite local authorities’ knowledge and new powers with the private sector’s resources and delivery capability.

Attention in the sector has already turned to the 10-year plan promised before Christmas, he said, including more detail on how devolution will deliver “firepower” for mayors and how the government will take greater public control of key services.