‘GB Energy’s first investment demonstrates Labour’s climate leadership’

The announcement that GB Energy’s first major project will see schools, hospitals and community energy projects across the UK benefit from £200 million of renewable energy investment is a perfect showcase of what real climate leadership looks like. In a week when other parties are falling over themselves to proclaim incoherent plans and muddle positions on net zero, Labour is getting on with the job at hand. 

When energy prices skyrocketed following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, our hospitals, clubs, schools and libraries were put under intense pressure as costs rose and the public spaces that make our communities what they are faced increased threats. Any responsible government would act to ensure that our local areas are protected against similar price spikes: a system reliant on volatile foreign fossil fuel markets cannot be allowed to continue. This is why the clean power mission and GB Energy are vital – they will allow us to end our reliance on unpredictable imported oil and gas and instead empower local communities to produce and use more of their own power.

The funding announced includes support for rooftop solar on schools and hospitals, which will save the average school £25,000 per year and the average NHS site £45,000. Not only will this protect schools and hospitals from future energy price shocks, but it will free up cash to spend on teaching children and treating patients.

At the same time, GB Energy is now set to provide support for community energy groups. Community owned energy empowers local people to produce energy with co-operatively owned onshore wind and solar power. This means profits can be returned to the local area, either in the form of cheaper bills or investment in community projects. By funding our own energy projects, we protect our country and communities from future energy volatility and take advantage of cheap renewable power.

‘Investing in home-grown energy grows the money available for everything else we need’

Contrast this with the approach taken by other parties. This week, Kemi Badenoch tried to save her flailing leadership by attacking the UK’s climate ambition. She is absolutely right to say that “every single thing we do in our daily lives is dependent on cheap, abundant energy” but absolutely wrong to think that the way to achieve this is by reversing our action on net zero.

This is absurd. It has been our fraught reliance on fossil fuels that has exposed families and communities to high energy prices.  It was the Conservatives’ ban on onshore wind and heel-dragging on net zero that left the UK a price-taker, not a price-setter in our energy market. 

We do need abundant energy. But schools and hospitals in areas like mine in South East Cornwall need to be protected from future energy price spikes through cheap, locally-produced renewables. The announcement includes funding for renewable energy projects at the Cornwall Partnership, our local NHS trust. This investment will save the trust £5m to £6.5m over the lifetime of the projects. That is money that can be freed up to invest in nurses, frontline services, and more appointments for people who desperately need them.

This is what Labour understand about energy and what some of our opponents don’t. By investing in our own home-grown energy generation, and by empowering our communities, we grow the money available for everything else that we need.

‘Soon everybody will feel the benefit’

It’s no surprise that the public are on board with what we’re proposing. Polling after the last general election showed that 73% of voters believed GB Energy would be good for the country. Most Labour voters thought it would be a good thing but so did most Conservative voters, most Reform voters and most Lib Dem voters. This is not a partisan issue which is why it is so strange that our opponents are trying to make it one. 

When opportunistic politicians claim clean power is not in our interest, the British public know better. We lived through the last energy price spike. We saw what happened when Britain didn’t control our own energy. We know we need to build a better system.

The funding announced is just the start in an ambitious programme to set up a new, publicly owned energy company which will play a leading role in delivering our clean power mission. In the coming years, we have an opportunity to build up the clean energy we need and give our local areas a real stake in our energy future. Schools and hospitals are the first to gain in this new generational approach but soon everybody will feel the benefit.

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