Great British Energy must create 5% of UK electricity by 2030 to lower bills, report finds
The Government must press ahead with the original ambitious plan for Great British Energy to become a fully operational electricity company to succeed in lowering bills, a new report has found.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has said that Labour’s proposal for a new, publicly-owned energy company to deliver clean and affordable electricity was among the party’s most popular manifesto promises.
Public support for the idea remains strong, with 55 per cent of voters favoured it in polling for More in Common, against just 13 per cent saying it was a bad idea.
But the IPPR report, published today, has warned that without “bold, but focused” actions the company – due to be formally established this spring - will disappoint by failing to meet its original objectives.
Juergen Maier, the former CEO of Siemens and vice chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has been made chairman of GBE, but in a recent interview refused to give a timeframe for when energy bills would come down.
Amid concerns that the Treasury could reduce GBE’s funding, IPPR said it must become a fully operating electricity company, both generating power and eventually selling it directly to businesses and communities.
With the full £8.3bn originally pledged by 2030 and with the right structures and remit, the report found that GBE could feasibly be delivering 5 per cent of the UK’s electricity by the early 2030s.
This, the think tank claimed, would bring down bills and be comparable to equivalent publicly-owned electricity companies in Germany and the US.
Simone Gasperin, associate fellow at IPPR, said: “Public ownership of electricity is strategically important for modern economic systems and societies.
“It has the potential to deliver cheaper, cleaner, and more secure energy for the UK, particularly under the current structure of the electricity market.
“But for Great British Energy to succeed as a publicly-owned operating company, the government must take the most ambitious approach possible, including sticking to its original plan to invest £8.3bn.”
The report comes as Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, instructed her shadow ministers with finding “achievable solutions” to delivering cheap, clean energy after declaring that reaching net zero by 2050 is “impossible”.
She said it was time to “get real” about the target during a speech to launch the party’s policy renewal process in London yesterday.
Mrs Badenoch claimed that net zero by 2050 cannot be achieved without “a significant drop in our living standards, or worse, by bankrupting us.”
She has tasked shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, with help from shadow Scotland secretary and energy minister Andrew Bowie to look at solutions for delivering cheap and clean energy.
Mrs Badenoch said there would be “more in the weeks ahead” as “the academics, experts, business people, members from all walks of life” will help the party “get to the root cause of our country’s problems”.
After Mrs Badenoch’s speech, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the Commons: “The opposition is off to the Wacky Races quite frankly when it comes to net zero.
“This government knows the truth, that net zero is the economic opportunity of the 21st century and under this government we will seize it.”