The owner of ScottishPower will set out plans to double its multibillion-pound investment in Britain over the next five years, in one of the first of several deals expected to be announced as international business leaders arrive in London next week.

Iberdrola, the Spanish energy group, will spend £24billion on upgrading the high-voltage cables needed to transport power around the country and on building more wind farms, making Britain its largest destination for investment in the world.

Ignacio Galan, executive chairman of Iberdrola, said the extra spending was a "vote of confidence" in Britain, encouraged by greater regulatory stability and a "clear policy direction".

The Times says more than 100 international business leaders are due to meet in London next week to attend the government's first International Investment Summit as Sir Keir Starmer attempts to drum-up investment in the UK.

About two-thirds of the money spent by Iberdrola will be on increasing the capacity of the electricity transmission and distribution lines that carry the clean power generated in Scotland to the south. They will include a new subsea superhighway, Eastern Green Link 1, between Torness in Scotland and Hawthorn Pit in England.

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