Public energy company could generate £140bn by 2040, TUC analysis claims

A publicly-owned energy company could generate a “mammoth” £140bn for the UK economy by 2040 if provided with sufficient government investment, new research from the TUC has claimed.

The analysis, released by the union body today, found that a public energy company could see a £3 return for every £1 invested and generate £140bn by 2040 – equivalent to £5,000 per household – if the next government invests £40bn by 2030.

Keir Starmer announced that the next Labour government will create a publicly-owned clean energy generation company – Great British Energy – within its first year in power during his speech to party conference last year.

Commenting on the new analysis, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Publicly-owned energy companies work. Across Europe, they are lowering household bills and delivering good jobs.

“But the UK is feeding foreign firms’ profits and subsidising cheaper bills abroad, while British households struggle to heat their homes and pay their bills.

“It’s common sense – those who invest in the future end up better off. A British public energy champion – at the right scale – could create good jobs, speed up the path to net zero and make everyone better off by a mammoth £140bn.

“The UK is at a crossroads – we can continue to allow foreign firms to rip off British households or we can invest in publicly-owned clean power. That’s the best way to decarbonise the UK economy and safeguard people’s jobs and livelihoods.”

The TUC argued that any public energy company should emulate countries like Norway, Sweden and France, where it said “strong recognised unions and worker representatives on company boards help to ensure good, fairly-paid union jobs”.

The federation of unions declared that such a company should also be “democratically accountable to the public” like other firms in Europe.

Labour set out further details on its plan to create GB Energy as part of its energy ‘mission’ – one of the five missions that will form the basis of the party’s next election manifesto – including revealing that the company will be based in Scotland.

In the party’s full briefing document on its energy mission, it stated that the planned publicly-owned energy company would be “capitalised by investment over the course of parliament until it is a self-sustaining entity”.

Labour said the company would be able to invest in and deliver projects to “provide additional investment alongside the private sector”, with its initial priority being to “co-invest in leading-edge energy technologies where this can de-risk and unlock private sector investment”.

The firm would also be able to invest to speed up the deployment of established technologies “where there is a clear case that public sector investment would accelerate private sector development” – including supporting the development and scaling of municipal and community energy under the party’s ‘local power plan’.

Labour claimed that GB Energy would cut energy bills, create jobs and “build supply chains in this country, guaranteeing our long-term energy security”, adding that a “driving motivation” for its creation is the “need to emulate the success of other European countries and have our own domestic champion”.