- Labour unveils clean power plan to deliver an energy system that can bring down bills for households and businesses for good.
- Households in Portsmouth will be better protected from the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets and high energy prices.
- Labour’s plan will unblock the grid, speed up planning decisions and build more renewables to make Britain energy secure with clean power by 2030.
Families across Portsmouth will benefit from a new era of clean electricity, as Labour today unveils the most ambitious reforms to the country’s energy system in a generation, to make Britain energy secure, protect households from energy price spikes, reindustrialise the country with thousands of skilled jobs, and tackle the climate crisis.
For too long, there has been no plan for building new energy infrastructure based on an assessment of what the country actually needs for the long term.
As a result, clean energy projects, including in the South East, have been held up by a clogged-up planning system and a dysfunctional power grid queue has delayed connections.
The Labour government will now plan an energy system based on what the country, and Portsmouth needs.
The plan sets out bold measures to get more homegrown clean power to people. These include:
- cleaning up a dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects and ending the “first-come-first served” system;
- speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure;
- and expanding the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected.
Every family and business in Portsmouth has paid the price of Britain’s dependence on foreign fossil fuel markets, which was starkly exposed when Putin invaded Ukraine and British energy customers were among the hardest hit in Western Europe, with bills reaching record heights.
The Labour government’s clean power mission is the solution to this crisis; by sprinting to clean, homegrown energy, including renewables and nuclear, the UK can take back control of its energy and protect both family and national finances from fossil fuel price spikes with cleaner, affordable power.
This action plan sets out how the government will build the generation and infrastructure needed to deliver that system.
Over this Parliament the government will be working relentlessly to translate the much cheaper wholesale costs of clean power into lower bills for consumers.
Commenting, Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan said:
“Every family and business in Portsmouth has paid the price of Britain’s dependence on foreign fossil fuel markets with bills skyrocketing in recent years.
“That’s why Labour’s plan is so vital to protect Portsmouth households from the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets and high energy prices.
“Our clean energy plan will enable Portsmouth families to benefit from a new era of clean electricity, make our country energy secure and help tackle the climate crisis.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
“A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain’s future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action.
“This can only happen with big, bold change and that is why the government is embarking on the most ambitious reforms to our energy system in generations.
“The era of clean electricity is about harnessing the power of Britain’s natural resources so we can protect working people from the ravages of global energy markets.
“The clean power sprint is the national security, economic security, and social justice fight of our time – and this plan gives us the tools we need to win this fight for the British people.”
