Keir Starmer vows to ‘drive down bills’ as Labour launches plan for state-owned energy firm

The prime minister accused the previous government of leaving a ‘rot of short-sightedness and self-service’ for Labour to clear up

Sir Keir Starmer launched Great British Energy, promising household energy bills will come down as a result of the plan for a state-owned energy firm.

Giving a speech in Runcorn, Cheshire, the prime minister also promised the scheme would help to achieve energy independence for the UK, as the nation currently relies on international markets for its energy.

He said the money the government is putting into GB Energy is intended to be a “catalyst” for private investment, adding: “It will take time for this to develop it will take time before were able to get the benefits of clean power but that’s why were moving at pace.”

Sir Keir Starmer launched GB Energy today, promising household energy bills will come down as a result of the plan for a state-owned energy firm (BBC)

Sir Keir said the “hard graft of rebuilding this country has truly started”, accusing the previous government of leaving a “rot of short-sightedness and self-service” for Labour to clear up.

The prime minister claimed his administration is finding “more mess” that the Tories left behind every day.

He said: “The hard graft of rebuilding this country has well and truly started, and it is vital that we begin immediately because the last government dropped the ball.

“They left us the worst inheritance since the Second World War, and every day – every day – we’re finding more mess that they’ve left for us to clear up. The rot of short-sightedness and self-service that has weakened the foundations of our country.”

While energy secretary Ed Miliband admitted that it is “going to take time” for the energy firm to make money, he claimed it would start generating returns “within the lifetime of this parliament”.

Miliband declined to give a timeline for when people can expect their bills to go down (BBC)

He declined to give a timeline for when people can expect their bills to go down.

Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3 billion to invest in new wind farms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, the energy secretary told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Miliband said: “Within a couple of years, as we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills, but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control.

“In a sense, the whole point of what I’m saying is we’ve got to get off that lack of control where dictators like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin control the fossil fuel market, because I can’t promise you what’s going to happen to gas prices.

“But I can say that, if we drive to clean, homegrown British energy, we will have much more control over what happens to bills.”

Sir Keir and Mr Miliband today announced an £8.3 billion partnership between GB Energy and the Crown Estate, which they said would “unleash billions of investment in clean power”.

The Crown Estate estimated it will lead to up to 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments by 2030 - enough to power the equivalent of almost 20 million homes.

The public sector will take on a new role undertaking additional early development work for offshore wind projects, which would mean they are lower risk for developers and would allow the projects to progress more quickly, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said.

It claimed the partnership, alongside planned policy reforms, will cut the time it takes to get offshore wind projects delivering power to homes by up to half.