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Senior Labour figures set out their plans for large-scale investment in green infrastructure this week as the party sought to cement its position as a government-in-waiting.

The opposition鈥檚 four-day conference in Liverpool could hardly have come at a better time, as markets went into a tailspin on the back of the chancellor鈥檚 announcement of a huge packet of tax cuts.

A YouGov poll released this week showed Labour 17 points ahead of the Tories as it laid out its plans for governing.

The headline policy announcement came in Keir Starmer鈥檚 speech, with the party leader promising to create a publicly-owned company to fund green energy projects within his first year in office.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves echoed Starmer鈥檚 commitment to turn the UK into a 鈥済reen growth superpower鈥� as she revealed proposals for an 拢8bn national wealth fund to invest in green initiatives.

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Her plan would see the state retain a share in the renewable assets in which it invests, with the hope that the capital provided would attract further private investment.

Roughly 拢2bn would be spent on eight gigafactories across England, 拢3bn would be spent on 鈥渃lean steel鈥� plants in Cardiff, Rotherham, Sheffield, Port Talbot and Scunthorpe, while another 拢1bn would help set up net-zero industrial clusters in Grangemouth, south Wales, Humber and Teesside, Merseyside, Southampton and the Peak District.

This year鈥檚 Labour conference also saw several infrastructure-related policy motions passed, including one advocating for public ownership of rail services and the delivery of the eastern leg of HS2 and large parts of Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The motion, moved by the train drivers鈥� union Aslef and backed by transport union TSSA, said the profit motive in rail had led to short-termism and under-investment, citing the cancelled projects.

A separate motion backed the creation of an independent national skills taskforce to forecast supply and demand for skills investment and make recommendations as well as an overhaul of the apprenticeship levy to make it more flexible and targeted.

The party is not bound by conference motions such as these. The national policy forum and 鈥渃lause five鈥� meeting before a general election will decide which parts of the party programme will be included in a manifesto.

As well as significant investments in infrastructure, Starmer announced his intention to make Labour the 鈥減arty of homeownership in Britain鈥�, targeting 70% home ownership and promising a new mortgage guarantee scheme to achieve it.

In his centrepiece conference address he also pledged to reform the planning system 鈥渟o speculators can鈥檛 stop communities getting shovels in the ground鈥�.

Shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy promised to restore social housing as the second largest form of tenure and rebalance the housing market towards first-time buyers.

The Conservative Party conference starts in Birmingham on Sunday.