Ed Miliband comments on the Government’s energy measures

Ed Miliband MP, Labour’s Shadow Climate and Net Zero Secretary, responding to the Government’s energy measures, said:

“What was billed with huge hype as the government’s “green day” turns out to be a weak and feeble groundhog day of re-announcements, reheated policy, and no new investment.

“This confirms once and for all that, after thirteen years of failed energy policy, that Britain under the Conservatives will be stuck with higher energy bills, energy insecurity, lost jobs and climate delay.

“These announcements are most notable for their glaring omissions: no removal of the onshore wind ban which is costing families hundreds of pounds on bills , no new investment for energy efficiency which could cut bills and imports, no response to the Inflation Reduction Act which could help Britain win the global race for clean energy jobs.

“This is a government out of ideas, out of touch, and out of time. Only Labour has a mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower with a plan for zero-carbon power by 2030 and GB Energy, our publicly-owned energy company, which will cut energy bills, strengthen our energy security, and create hundreds of thousands of quality jobs across the country.”

Ends

Notes

• The Chancellor has confirmed today that the UK will wait until over a year after President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was passed to formally respond. 

• The onshore wind ban in England that David Cameron put in place in 2015 remains in place, reversing the policy proposed by Jacob Rees-Mogg in September 2022 to bring “consenting in line with other infrastructure”. (Autumn Statement 2022). Senior Conservatives, including Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Alok Sharma have all called for the ban to be lifted. (Source)

• The £1bn commitment to energy efficiency was first announced in September 2022 in Kwasi Kwarteng’s Mini-Budget.

• Labour’s plan to make Britain a clean energy superpower has been endorsed by senior energy leaders from across the political spectrum. (Source)

Conservative Party failure on energy - lower bills, energy insecurity, losing out on the race for green jobs. 

• Tories Mean Higher Bills Labour’s plan for 2030 zero carbon power will cut bills by £93 billion by 2030, £400 a year for every family in Britain according to independent experts. The Tories aren’t in the game. Just earlier this month, the Climate Change Committee described them as “asleep at the wheel” when it came to delivering their much weaker target for 2035.

• Tories Mean Energy insecurity: The ban on onshore wind has raised bills by £160 a year for every family and increased our gas imports by the equivalent of what we used to import from Russia. Yet still they persist with the ban which means higher bills, higher imports, and energy insecurity.

• Tories Mean Lost Jobs: Under the Conservatives, the UK is being left behind in the global race for good green jobs; according to the CBI, we are investing five times less in green industries than Germany, and roughly half of France and the USA. The Institute of Directors has warned that “the UK will find itself left behind in the accelerating race to lead the green economy.” And now eight months after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Chancellor has confirmed that the UK will have to wait over a year to respond. The Tories official ‘green day’ policy is now ‘Wake Me up When September Ends.’  

• Tories Mean Climate Failure: The Conservatives’ refusal to embrace the clean energy sprint means climate delay and their massive tax giveaway to the oil and gas industry is a colossal waste of taxpayers money, and climate vandalism on an epic scale. The massive tax giveaway will funnel £11.4 billion from the British people to oil and gas companies already making record profits, but it wont cut bills by a penny, it wastes billions and it drives a coach and horses through the chance of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees.
• The Conservatives’ record has been defined by higher bills, energy insecurity, lost jobs and climate delay. This is the Conservatives’ 5th energy relaunch in 2.5 years. All the evidence is that they will fail again, because they lack the ambition for a clean energy sprint to cut bills, they continue to block clean power like onshore wind depriving us of energy security, and they won’tinvest to make Britain a winner in the global race for clean energy jobs. 

• Failure after failure: This is their 5th energy relaunch in 2.5 years: 10 Point Plan (Nov 20) not delivered; Net Zero Strategy (Oct 21) declared illegal ; Energy Security Strategy (Apr 22)dumped; Growth Plan (Sept 2022) crashed the economy.

• Thirteen years of failed Conservative energy policy has led to higher energy bills for families, our energy system insecure in the face of global threats, lost jobs and industries and the UK well off track to meet its climate targets. From getting rid of our gas storage to slashing energy efficiency installation rates by 90% to banning onshore wind to crashing the market for solar, they have failed.

Further detail:

• On Great British Nuclear: We support the important role nuclear energy has to play, but this lame re-announcement offers no new investment in nuclear, and does not make up for the fact that Tory dither and delay means we have had no new nuclear in the last 13 years. The competition for SMRs was first announced in 2015. The last Labour government approved 10 new sites- but in the decade since the Tories have not managed to complete one new station. It is obvious that the British people should benefit from our natural resources, but still the Conservatives won’t back Labour’s plan to set up Great British Energy, our plan for a new home-grown, publicly-owned national champion in clean power generation
• On CCS: The announcement is spread over 20 years for CCS, which won’t begin until the next Parliament, and provides no detail of how it will be raised. It’s not included in the Government’s Budget numbers. Labour committed £1 billion to CCS 15 years ago before the Tories cancelled it - imagine the lead Britain could have had if they hadn’t done so. Labour would fund at least four industrial clusters, including in Scotland and Wales, with an additional £1bn of investment securing the future of industry in every part of the UK.
• On Offshore wind: As Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson said: “The wind farms that are coming online today were approved when Gordon Brown was in power”. But under the Tories the offshore wind jobs have been offshored too - with yards across the UK closing and the UK delivering three times fewer wind jobs than Denmark, despite us being over 10 times the size.

This is on top of thirteen years of failed Conservative energy policy:

• The disastrous onshore wind ban - introduced in 2015, which is now costing every household £160 a year.
• Solar - In 2015, the Government disastrously slashed solar subsidies causing a huge crash in the market. That missing capacity has left household energy bills another £2.5bn higher this winter.
• Warm Homes -  The Conservatives’ record on home insulation is woeful. In 2013 the Coalition cut energy efficiency programmes, after which insulation rates fell by 92% in 2013. They could have been insulating 2 million homes every year since, cutting bills by £1000 a year. The Resolution Foundation  estimates that 9 million households are paying an extra £170 per year on energy bills as a result of these failures.
• Failure to regulate the energy retail market, which has directly led to the collapse of energy companies costing families billions in higher bills. As a result of the government's failures, the IMF has said families in the UK were the hardest hit in Western Europe by the energy bills crisis.
• Allowing the UK’s only gas storage facility to close meaning the UK has amongst the least storage in Europe. 

Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan - Lower Bills, Energy Security, Good Jobs, Climate Leadership. 

• Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will grow the UK economy by investing in the green industries that can power our economic future, cut the cost of living for British families, and make Britain a clean energy superpower. 
• Keir Starmer’s historic pro-business, pro-worker plan would make the UK a world leader in tackling the climate crisis, in a way that will lower costs for families for good, create good-paying jobs across the country, and grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out. 
• Labour has a plan to win the global race for the green industries of the future, supporting the creation of over a million jobs in every corner of the country, and making us energy secure. As Rachel Reeves has set out, we want to make, buy, and sell more in Britain. And with shovels in the ground and cranes in the sky, Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will restore Britain’s industrial heartlands and help us lead the world again.

A Labour Government will:

• Act fast to make Britain a clean energy superpower, leading the world with 100% clean power by 2030
• Establish Great British Energy a new home-grown, publicly-owned national champion in clean power generation.

• Create a National Wealth Fund to build British industry and ensure the British people will benefit from the long-term return that investments  in gigafactories, clean steel plants, renewable-ready ports, green hydrogen and energy storage produce.

• Upgrade nineteen million cold, draughty homes so that families have cheaper energy bills and warm, future-proofed homes. 

Labour’s Plan will:

• Cut energy bills for good, saving each UK household £475 every year until 2030, or £93 billion in total.
• Make the UK energy independent, freeing us from our exposure to the fluctuations of the global gas market, which has been too-easily manipulated by Vladimir Putin and petrostates.
• Reindustrialise the UK, supporting the creation of over a million jobs across our cities, towns, and villages. 
• Provide global climate leadership, leading a global coalition to protect our home for future generations.

As Ed Miliband set out in a recent speech, Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will be Britain’s version of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

• Britain needs a plan for jobs and growth and Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will deliver that.  For thirteen years under the Conservatives, Britain has been stuck in what the CBI has called a “doom loop” of low growth, low wages, and public spending cuts. 
• There is a global race for these jobs of the future and while the US and EU are investing and pulling ahead, Britain under the Tories is losing that race which will cause us further long-term damage. The UK is being left behind the global race for good green jobs; according to the CBI, we are investing five times less in green industries less than Germany, and roughly half what France and the USA are
• British business supports green investment. The Institute for Directors recently called for a UK version of the Inflation Reduction Act to “incentivise much-needed green investment”, and the call for green investment has been echoed by the Confederation of British Industries, and Make UK.
• Investing now has a return and is the fiscally responsible thing to do. The OBR projects that failing to tackle the climate crisis now will see public debt soar to 289% of GDP by 2050 and delaying action by a decade will double its costs. The Bank of England agrees that green investment will grow and strengthen the economy, reducing systemic risk in the long term