As the starting gun has been fired on the General Election, let’s have a look at a some of the flagship policies.
Great British Energy is the Labour Party’s big idea. A British company owned by the British people to produce British energy for British people (any reference to Royston Vasey purely coincidental). This will make Britain a leader in Offshore Wind, cut bills by £300, and will be paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies. Kier has also committed to getting the UK to 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
The Tories have set up the similarly named Great British Nuclear, which is a rebadging of the BNFL with the objective of getting 2 large nuclear power stations approved and supporting SMRs. The last comprehensive tory policy statement from them was Boris’s 10-point plan from November 2020, this was unpicked in September last year when the PM rowed back on many of these initiatives and set a longer timetable for transition with a greater role for oil and gas.
Not to be left out the Lib Dems have put forward British Marine Energy with the task of making tidal power a reality. They also include a Net Zero Delivery Authority, responsible for coordination and devolution of the task.
It’s no surprise that the Green Party want to phase out nuclear and nationalise the retailers, but other than this there is little to distinguish their policies from the others.
None of this is enough to get us back on track to Net Zero by 2050, anyway we already missed that boat. Any party that promises lower energy bills needs to have their numbers properly scrutinised, as I can’t see any way of delivering the transition without a significant increase in costs. It’s not an easy topic for the doorstep, but energy market reform needs to be at the heart of any new energy policy.
It’s possible that over the next 6 weeks we will see more on energy policy, but we rarely see deep and well thought through policy in an election campaign.
We will have to hope that whoever is our 21st energy minister in 20 years has a good plan in their back pocket.
