Labour has vowed to take a more interventionist approach to energy as part of a new “campaign bible” reportedly sent to prospective parliamentary candidates.
However, the 24-page document notably omits the party’s much scrutinised pledge to invest £28 billion annually in green energy.
The document reaffirms Labour’s promise to fulfil the five “national missions” outlined by the party last year – the first being to “get Britain building again” and the second to “switch on Great British Energy”.
It says the government’s failure to keep Britain’s energy supplies in “British hands” has left the country “dangerously dependant” on imported fossil fuels: “That means we don’t control our own destiny. When there’s instability abroad, prices shoot up here at home.”
The document says the Conservative Party’s ideological refusal to invest in homegrown energy has led to higher energy bills, driven investment and supply chains overseas, and left foreign state-owned companies owning more of the UK’s offshore wind generation, which it describes as the “crown jewels of British energy”.
“Gone are the days when we can afford to be complacent and fail to use the power of government to back British business with a proper strategy. It is government’s job not just to regulate markets but to shape them and to de-risk them so that we crowd in the private investment that allows new industries to take off.”
Labour says its more interventionist approach would see it create “the biggest ever partnership between government and the private sector to create the clean energy jobs of the future and cut energy bills for good.”
The document reiterates the party’s goal of decarbonising the power sector by 2030, including its commitments to deliver 55GW of offshore wind by the end of the decade, as well as 35GW of onshore wind, 50GW of solar, 5GW of floating wind and 10GW of green hydrogen production.
In a recent report, AtkinsRealis warned that the current “muted” build rate of renewables – 4.5GW in 2023 – is well below the 15GW per year that will now be needed on average to meet the Conservatives’ less ambitious target of decarbonising the electricity system by 2035.
The “campaign bible” also confirms that Labour will create a new publicly-owned energy company – Great British Energy – to “give us real independence from foreign dictators”, and implement a “proper windfall tax” on oil and gas companies.
But there is no mention of the 2021 pledge by Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves to invest £28 billion annually in green energy from the moment it takes office, which was later watered down to £28 billion per year by the end of the next parliament, provided this does not breach the party’s own fiscal rules.
Conservative figures have criticised the spending commitment on the grounds that it would saddle the already heavily laden public purse with more debt, leading to higher inflation, higher interest rates and higher taxes.