Power Struggle

By Adrian Waddelove, Senior Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer, Energy and Utilities Alliance.

The manifestos are in. There are but a handful of days until polling day on July 4. But will energy policy be any different after the British public have had their say in the ballot box?

There was widespread belief that energy – both security of and net zero – would rank highly amongst the ‘issues’ in this election campaign. Many in industry have been left disappointed and it is easy to see why.

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. It sparked, amongst many other things, an energy crisis which saw billions of taxpayers money pumped at consumers to freeze bills at an average of £2,500 per year.

It was pretty much the only policy lever which survived from the Liz Truss (remember her?) premiership.

And then we saw Rishi Sunak deliver his ‘Net Zero Reset’ in September last year. Most notably we saw the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars moved from 2030 to 2035 (something Labour would reverse if elected), as well as the off-grid boiler ban being shifted from 2026 to 2035 in line with the existing policy to phase out new natural gas boilers.

Fortunately, energy is not being used as a wedge issue in the ‘culture wars’ but neither does there seem to be recognition that less than 18 months ago, the UK was going through a severe energy crisis.

In truth, policymakers have been lucky. The last two winters have been relatively mild, meaning gas reserves have not been stretched. Demand flexibility which saw decent uptake by consumers initially has not needed to be deployed consistently to smooth out peaks in demand.

Yes, we’ve heard a little from Labour about their plans for GB Energy and it is one of their six missions. But the policy seems short on detail and setting up a publicly owned clean power company will take money and crucially, time. Will it be ready to insulate ourselves against a possible energy crisis this winter for example?

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats (when in coalition) failed to press on with new nuclear power stations. This has arguably damaged our security of supply given it is one of the few clean sources of power which continues to function whatever the weather conditions, reducing our reliance on oil and gas.

I think many in industry are stunned by the lack of progress on energy efficiency which has been, and is, seemingly ignored by multiple parties of all colours. Energy efficiency is the quickest way to reduce energy consumption and cut consumer bills, both short and long-term. The current government would argue they have a good record on this, but as a country we are simply not moving fast enough and none of the manifestos released this month really provide any solutions to tackle it.

We need ambitious policies but they must also be deliverable. The Green Party want to push towards net zero “more than a decade ahead of 2050” but would this be at the cost of consumer buy-in for the transition? And who is paying for it?

I do think industry and policymakers are very good about talking in generality about the net zero transition. But we are less inclined to get to grips with the nitty gritty – the specific policy levers required to push us along on our journey to net zero.

We know too, that there is widespread support for net zero amongst the public. But where this falls down is always around costs to individual pockets.

So we need to engage with consumers now. The clock is ticking towards 2050. We need to be honest about some of the costs and better articulate what a net zero society looks like in practice.

We need to give consumers choice about how to heat their homes, for example. But we also need to talk positively about the low-carbon technologies already developed and those in the pipeline which will help us to unlock net zero. And the possible financial opportunities which lie ahead for us.

Failure to engage in this discussion with the British public will result in us, I suspect, sleepwalking towards something which could result in a consumer backlash against net zero. That’s why I believe we need more chatter and engagement from our political parties during this election campaign.

So far, heat pump uptake remains persistently sluggish. The hydrogen village trials were cancelled due to a lack of public support. Change is not being welcomed with open arms yet.

Everyone in the energy world says 2050 isn’t far away. We have 26 years left and the size of change does feel enormous in such a small timeframe.

This next Parliament (which will likely take us to 2029) feels like a vitally important one but I don’t think this has been reflected by any of the parties in their manifestos.

Let us hope we avoid another energy crisis (which I don’t think we’re prepared to cope with) and that we can focus on implementing sensible and consistent policy now that will deliver net zero in the long term.