Keir Starmer has pledged to take on Labour MPs and councils that try to block pylon networks delivering a planned new generation of clean electricity, as he promised the government’s plans would lower people’s bills in this parliament.
Formally launching GB Energy, the state-run green energy generation company, one of his flagship policies, the prime minister said there was a need to move rapidly on new onshore and offshore wind because of what he called the last government’s inaction and short-termism.
Speaking at a wind turbine factory on the edge of Widnes, Cheshire, Starmer set out the plan to build enough offshore wind turbines over the next five years to power 20m homes, part of a tie-up with the crown estate.
Answering media questions after his speech, watched by Juergen Maier, the former Siemens UK boss who has been announced as the chair of GB Energy, Starmer was asked if he could guarantee ministers would push for power to be distributed using overground lines, rather than underground or undersea cables, which are much more expensive and take considerably longer to build.
There are already planning battles against overground lines in places including East Anglia and Lincolnshire, with some Labour candidates at the general election saying they opposed pylon schemes.
“We will take the tough decisions to make this work,” Starmer replied. “Because it’s the failure to take the tough decisions, the running away from tough decisions, that has caused over a decade of lost opportunity.
“That will include decisions on planning, where we intend to make the necessary changes. And that will apply everywhere, whatever the rosette on the constituency, because we have to move this forward.”
Without radical action, Starmer said, planning delays for both wind farms and electricity networks would mean it “takes 30 years before we get the power”. He added: “We’re not going to go on like that.”
While GB Energy will ultimately invest in a range of cutting-edge technologies such as carbon capture, tidal power and small nuclear reactors, its initial focus will be on offshore wind.
It is modelled on nationalised energy giants like France’s EDF or Sweden’s Vattenfall, but it will not have anything like the spending power of either. Asked about GB Energy’s initial government funding of £8.3bn over five years, and whether this was enough to “win the race for clean energy”, as he put it, Starmer insisted this was just part of the picture.
“The money that’s going in to GB Energy is intended to be a catalyst for private investment,” he said. “It will give great confidence to investors about the determination we have to take decisions. This is a historic partnership. This has never been done before. It’s a real gamechanger.”
Starmer said the scheme would bring down people’s energy bills, although he was initially cautious on when this would happen, saying he would “certainly want to get those bills down in this parliament”.
But asked later if he stood by Labour’s pledge to cut average household energy bills by £300 a year by 2030, he replied: “I do.”
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Starmer was again scathing about the lack of action on clean energy from the Conservatives, who had a longstanding de facto ban on new onshore wind schemes.
“That’s why we’re moving at pace – because the inaction of the last 10 years has cost every family, every business.” So we need to move the pace to get those bills down,” he said.
“We’ve lost a decade of opportunity, missed chances to boost our energy security to cut bills and create good jobs.”
“People up and down the country have literally paid the price of that shortsightedness. And we should be in no doubt. For as long as we remain reliant on foreign dictators for fossil fuels, this country will be exposed to future energy shocks like the one that we’ve just had.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for planning policy, was contacted for comment.