Keir Starmer claims new publicly owned energy company GB Energy will bring bills down within five years
25 July 2024, 14:10
Millions of people will have lower energy bills within five years, Keir Starmer claimed on Thursday, as he launched plans for Britain's new publicly-owned energy company.
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The Prime Minister said that GB Energy would give Britain "energy independence", adding that bills in the UK are higher than in some other countries because the country currently relies on international markets.
He said that the money the government was putting into the company was intended to incentivise private investment, as the UK seeks to get to net zero by 2030.
Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to voted through by MPs first.
The government has set aside £8.3 billion to invest in new wind farms and solar projects, which must be built before GB Energy can start generating a return.
As part of the government's plans, GB Energy will work with the monarch's property company, the Crown Estate, to speed up the building of offshore wind farms. The Crown Estate owns the vast majority of Britain's seabed.
Starmer added: "It will take time for this to develop, it will take time before we're able to get the benefits of clean power, but that's why we're moving at pace," he said.
The PM said he stood by the figure from Labour's manifesto suggesting that the party's net zero energy plans would bring down household bills by £300 per year.
He added: "I stand by everything in my manifesto and one of the things I made clear in the election campaign is because I wouldn't make a single promise or commitment that I didn't think we could deliver in government and that's why we carefully costed and funded everything in our manifesto.
"That does depend on early firm decisions being made, which is why we've set up GB Energy, why we've announced the partnership today with the Crown Estate and why the energy secretary has already taken action in week one in relation to onshore wind, in relation to solar energy and also pushing on with nuclear.
"So I stand by that commitment.
"What this brings us is lower bills, energy security, the next generation of jobs and of course an important contribution to our obligations in relation to the planet."
Sir Keir also said that nuclear energy was part of the government's energy plans, adding that he would be "pushing hard on it".
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"I've already had discussions with the Energy Secretary about how we can speed up when it comes to nuclear," he said.
The PM told reporters that he was "pretty appalled" at what Labour is discovering about the previous government's decisions in terms of the speed of projects and the funding put behind them.
"We will clear them up and we will move this on because nuclear is very much part of the energy mix as we go forward.
"And the task I've set the Energy Secretary is to take such steps that are necessary to make sure this is delivered faster and more efficiently and to do that as quickly as possible."
But he promised he would not be "bearing down on individuals" or "imposing a disproportionate burden on them".
"This is not about a government that's going to go around the country saying 'you can do this. You can't do that.'"
He said the best approach is to "put in place the difficult decisions to make sure that renewable energy is a reliable source of energy and meet our mission which is to have clean power by 2030."
