Ahead of the forthcoming election this year, the Labour Party has this month published a document which sets out its vision for the nation and the policies to create this. In the document, the Labour leader Keir Starmer argues that he will fight to create a ‘decade of national renewal’ and rewire the country after the perceived failures of the Conservative governments over the last decade. Labour has set out five long-term missions to end what they describe as ‘sticking plaster politics’, these missions hope to instill a different set of values and ethic to British politics. One of these missions is to ‘Switch on Great British Energy’ and ensure that energy bills are reduced, jobs in the energy sector created and dependence on foreign nations reduced.
Switch on Great British Energy:
Labour states within the document that the Conservatives have been ideologically opposed to utilising the energy opportunities that Britain has and instead have refused home-grown investment, allowing foreign investment, highlighting that half of Britain’s offshore wind is now owned by foreign governments. The report also points toward the fact that the Conservatives have failed to complete any nuclear power stations. As a result of this, Labour believes that Britain ‘can’t afford to go on like this’ and another five years of Conservative rule will reinforce high energy bills and energy jobs and investment being shipped overseas.
Instead, Labour wants a new approach to the energy sector, one in which the government doesn’t just regulate markets but also shapes and de-risks them. To do this, Labour wants to undertake the biggest ever partnership between the government and private sector investment to allow clean energy industries to take off. Labour argues that Britain must take advantage of our coastlines, entrepreneurs, scientists and workforce to ensure that the nation becomes a clean energy superpower which has cheaper energy bills, better energy jobs and energy independence.
Policies:
To achieve this the document sets out a range of Labour’s policies on energy, including:
- A proper windfall tax on oil and gas companies
- Creating Great British Energy, a new publicly owned energy company that will be owned by, built for and for the benefit of the British people
- A national wealth fund to invest in clean energy sources and national grid infrastructure
- Warmer homes through insulation strategies
- Create 500,000 energy jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands and coastal areas
- Clean up rivers and seas through greater regulation
Clean Power by 2030:
Alongside these policies, the document states that a Labour government would set the following energy targets for 2030:
- Pioneer floating offshore wind to create 5GW capacity
- Double onshore wind capacity to 35GW
- Triple solar power to 50GW
- Quadruple offshore wind capacity to 55GW
- Complete nuclear projects at Hinkley and Sizewell, along with backing new small modular nuclear reactors
- Double targets on green hydrogen to 10GW for use in flexible power generation
The full document can be found in the link: Missions-Document-Lets-Get-Britains-Future-Back.pdf (labour.org.uk)