When Labour blasted into power, it promised that under its trusted stewardship the UK would become a nirvana.
Our economy, it said, would be transformed for the better by the aggressive pursuit of a green agenda led by Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. So no to nasty oil and gas – and yes to lovely wind and solar. All in a quest to reach Mr Miliband and Labour’s holy grail: Net Zero by 2050.
This economic makeover, Labour trilled, would result in tens of thousands of exciting new jobs as swathes of our (much cherished) farmland would need to be carpeted in a mosaic of muckless solar panels – and platoons of offshore wind turbines built.
So boom times for the economy lay ahead, promised Labour, helped by an ambitious construction programme that would provide 1.5 million new homes, all with eco-friendly heat pumps.
Oh, how wide Mr Miliband grinned at the prospect of overseeing this green makeover.
To whet our appetite and keep sceptics on board, we were told that this revolution would also be kind on our pockets. Indeed, it would result in average annual home energy bills falling by £300 come 2030. Given the spiralling energy bills of the recent past, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this promise was music to the ears of many hard-pressed households.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho describes Mr Miliband as the ‘most dangerous man in Britain’ for committing to a ban on new exploration licences for oil and gas in the North Sea
As I said, nirvana. Bring on the Miliband revolution. Yet with every day that passes, the suspicion grows that this blind pursuit of a green revolution is doing exactly the opposite of what was intended.
It is hampering rather than aiding the economy. Labour – and in particular the immovable Mr Miliband – have hoodwinked us.
It’s a view shared by many, including opposition MPs, US President Donald Trump and even some green zealots.
Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho describes Mr Miliband as the ‘most dangerous man in Britain’ for committing to a ban on new exploration licences for oil and gas in the North Sea.
President Trump, concluding his successful visit to the UK last week, made the same point, albeit in a surprisingly more diplomatic way. In the wake of a £2 billion investment in our country’s artificial intelligence (AI) start-up ecosystem by US tech giant Nvidia, Mr Trump said that Labour’s fixation with Net Zero could leave the UK unable to meet all the energy needs put upon it by AI in the near future.
He went on to describe the North Sea as a ‘phenomenal asset’ and urged the Prime Minister to ‘drill, baby, drill’. As if that wasn’t enough, he described wind power as a ‘disaster’. How Mr Miliband must have cringed.
In recent weeks, both green industrialist Dale Vince (founder of Ecotricity and a Labour donor) and the boss of energy giant Octopus have also called for Labour to take a more relaxed approach to North Sea oil and gas.
Of course, for most households, what matters most of all is the size of their energy bill.
And currently, for all of Mr Miliband’s rhetoric and the Prime Minister’s commitment to sorting out the persistent cost-of-living crisis, it’s burning too big a hole in their finances.
The promise of a £300 cut in energy bills is increasingly looking more like pie in the sky than one based on fact (or a scintilla of fact).
Indeed, Mr Miliband’s zealous pursuit of Net Zero is resulting in exactly the opposite of what he said would happen. Energy bills are going up, not down.
The facts speak for themselves. Since Labour came into power, the energy price cap for an average annual dual-fuel bill has jumped from £1,568 to £1,720, a rise of just short of 10 per cent.
(Just for clarity, the cap, set quarterly by energy regulator Ofgem, is a Government-mandated limit on the unit rates and standing charges that energy suppliers can impose on customers on a standard variable tariff.)
To make matters worse, there is little indication prices will be falling any time soon. From next month, the price cap will tickle up another 2 per cent to £1,755, taking the increase since Labour’s election victory to just under 12 per cent.
Somewhat ironically, the introduction of the new cap will coincide with the last day of the Labour party annual jamboree in Liverpool.
Although I could be wrong, I imagine there will be little mention of it – and no comment whatsoever on the fact that more than two million households will avoid turning on their central heating this winter as a result of soaring bills.
The view that Mr Miliband’s green revolution is hampering the economy is shared by many, including US President Donald Trump
Depressingly, there seems little end in sight to rising energy bills. Energy consultant Cornwall Insight predicts that, come April next year, the price cap could hit £1,820 (16 per cent above the level in July last year).
What will make these increases really hard to swallow for financially challenged households is they will not be a result of higher energy costs – indeed the wholesale cost of both gas and electricity is expected to fall next spring.
They will be a direct consequence of Mr Miliband piling yet more charges on our bills to meet his Net Zero date.
Cornwall Insight says as much. It attributes the increase in future energy bills next April to households being required to pay for the cost of connecting yet more wind and solar farms to the National Grid, funding the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station, and paying for upgrades to the gas transmission network.
What is galling is that households can do little to mitigate these extra costs because they invariably get wrapped up in the daily fixed charge (the standard charge) you pay for your energy.
In other words, they are a levy that take no regard of your actual energy consumption.
For example, a quick examination of my latest energy statement shows that a whopping 48 per cent of my electricity bill (before VAT) is made up of standing charges.
Damn you, Mr Miliband.
OK, I have a gas boiler which provides me with hot water and heat for my flat when required, so I’m not a big user of electricity (I’m not at home much during the working work, other than to sleep).
But the financial impact on many households of these egregious fixed standing charges, comprising various green levies, cannot be summarily dismissed on the grounds that meeting Net Zero takes precedence. It shouldn’t.
Seven days ago, it emerged that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is concerned about the impact of ever-rising energy bills on the mood of the nation.
As a result, she is considering whether to do away with the 5 per cent VAT we pay on our bills. A move that would save households about £86 a year.
Yet I don’t think this is addressing the nub of the energy problem.
I’m all for doing everything we can as a nation to help tackle climate change, but not at the expense of our industry (already decimated by energy costs that are among the highest in the developed world) – and not if it imperils the financial health of households up and down the country.
It is time for a more pragmatic approach to energy, built around the use of renewables and the abundant resources that lie untapped under our seas.
One that DOES drive down our energy bills without abrogating our responsibility to saving the planet.
If Mr Miliband can’t deliver it, the Prime Minister should find someone who can.
