Labour plans to create a publicly owned energy company and kickstart green energy projects across the UK “within months” if elected.
The Keir Starmer led party plans for a publicly owned, Scottish-based national energy company called Great British Energy to generate homegrown green energy up and down the country, with the party claiming it will help to “turn the page” on the cost of living crisis by driving down bills.
Ahead of the July 4 general election, Starmer said the goal was to harness “the opportunity of clean British power, [make] us energy independent, [remove] Putin’s boot from our throat, and [cut] bills in your home — for good.”
In February this year, Labour cut its green investment plans by half marking the most controversial U-turn of Starmer’s leadership.
Labour said Great British Energy would “turn the page on the cost-of-living crisis” by lowering energy bills, adding it would fund the venture through a windfall tax on big oil and gas firms, which the party said would raise £8.3bn over the next five years.
It would provide domestic wind and solar projects, as the country becomes less reliant on fossil fuels, and invest in new technologies including floating offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
Plans for Great British Energy form a key pillar of Labour’s wider green policy programme.
These also include plans to set up a a National Wealth Fund to invest in areas of the green and digital economy along with measures to decarbonise the UK power grid by 2030.
Labour shadow energy security and net zero secretary Ed Miliband said Great British Energy would “kickstart [Labour’s] mission for clean power to lower bills and boost our energy independence”.
He added: “It is time to move on from the Tories’ bone-headed opposition to clean energy, for which British families are paying the price.”
Green groups welcomed Labour’s plans for Great British Energy but called on the party to go further in its green pledges.
Angela Francis, director of policy solutions at WWF told Business Green: “The creation of Great British Energy will improve the UK’s energy security and help tackle climate change by investing in cheap, clean, home-grown renewable energy that will cut household energy bills.
“But it’s still only part of the puzzle. To free ourselves from expensive, polluting fossil fuels we must also prioritise insulating homes so we can all live in warm homes that don’t cost the earth to heat.”
