Latest news with #Ed Miliband
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
British Gas boss warns Miliband against ‘outrageous' energy bill divide
Forcing households with gas boilers to pay higher green taxes than those with heat pumps would be an 'abomination', the boss of British Gas has warned. In a stark warning to Ed Miliband, Chris O'Shea said that removing net zero levies from electricity bills would punish the poor and amount to a 'terrible distortion of the market'. It comes amid reports that the Energy Secretary is considering stripping green levies from electricity in a bid to encourage the adoption of heat pumps. Instead, the costs would be moved on to gas, making a boiler more expensive to run. Mr O'Shea, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, warned Mr Miliband to resist such an 'outrageous' overhaul and instead focus on protecting billpayers from the soaring cost of net zero. 'It's a preposterous idea,' Mr O'Shea told The Telegraph. 'The idea you'd put the levies on gas bills will mean those better-off people with heat pumps will be subsidised by those poorer people with gas boilers. That's nonsense. 'I think those of us with the broadest shoulders should help those of us who have the most need. 'To put them on gas bills would be an abomination, outrageous and a terrible distortion of the market. It would also be unfair because the people [who have] gas boilers the longest will also be those who can least afford to pay higher bills. 'I have heard the argument that it will encourage more people to use electricity. But encouraging people to use subsidised electricity by forcing gas users to pay just doesn't make any sense.' Mr O'Shea said the Government should shift the cost of green levies on to general taxation rather than creating an energy bill divide between households. 'Hostage to fortune' The Climate Change Committee, a Government quango, has urged Mr Miliband to remove the taxes from electricity bills to encourage more people to buy heat pumps and electric cars. However, experts have warned such a move risks increasing the average gas bill by £120 a year. Mr Miliband is considering the reforms as part of a radical rethink on clean power, as he fights to defend Britain's goal of reaching net zero by 2050. An announcement is expected this autumn. Mr O'Shea's plea to protect households with gas boilers came as he warned that Mr Miliband's net zero targets would be challenging. 'I don't think they are a work of fiction, and it's good that we have stretching targets,' he said. 'But even if you were to speak to those who helped to set them, then even they would say it will be difficult. But I don't think it's impossible.' The Centrica boss also cast doubt over Mr Miliband's pledge to cut household energy bills by 2030, supposedly aided by Britain's move to a greener economy. Mr O'Shea said he was sceptical that the Energy Secretary's promise to lower bills by £300 this parliament was 'achievable'. 'The energy transition is not cheap and it is not simple,' said Mr O'Shea. 'If it were, then we would have done it already. He urged the Government to take a more honest approach when it came to net zero. 'What renewables will do is give you more price stability,' he said. 'You will get fewer highs and fewer lows. Home-grown renewables give you more security than imported gas. 'But I wouldn't have made the £300 statement because it makes you a hostage to fortune.' As Britain's second-largest energy supplier behind rival Octopus, Centrica takes an 'agnostic' view when it comes to net zero, according to Mr O'Shea. That means the company is as comfortable building gas-fired power stations as it is investing in heat pumps. However, he said the business has abandoned wind and solar investments in the UK because they do not make enough money. Instead, Centrica is exploring wind investments in Ireland. Mr O'Shea was also critical of Mr Miliband's pledge to ban all new drilling in the North Sea, even though Centrica no longer conducts any exploration activity in the basin. 'I don't agree with the decision,' he said. 'If you take it from an environmental point of view, we import LNG [liquefied natural gas]. 'If you produce gas domestically, then it will have a lower carbon content than the LNG that we import. And the reason is the cost of shipping and the cost of turning the gas into a liquid.' Zonal pricing row By taking a less fiercely aggressive approach on net zero, Mr O'Shea has set himself apart from Greg Jackson, his counterpart at Octopus, who has made a virtue of being a clean-energy champion. This distinction came to the fore in recent months amid the fierce debate over zonal pricing. Unlike British Gas, Mr Jackson was a vocal supporter of plans to divide up the country into different energy pricing zones in an effort to incentivise developers to build wind and solar farms where demand – and prices – are highest. However, the proposals were highly controversial because they would have in practice meant higher bills in the South for electricity than in the North. 'It has been a very divisive debate,' said Mr O'Shea. 'We did not want a postcode lottery.' Mr Miliband recently abandoned the proposal, which British Gas believes was the right decision. Octopus disagrees and claims the Energy Secretary missed a vital opportunity to lower bills by billions of pounds. Mr O'Shea said: 'There was one very, very vocal proponent of it, and I think the benefits were all quite theoretical. 'For a company that purports to put the customer first, I don't know why they would want a system that would be more complex. I think they missed the point. 'I don't know why they went so hard on it and why they were so vicious about the Government's decision. One of their guys made a post on social media saying 'good game, well played'. This is not a game. People are struggling to pay their energy bills. 'I think that a lot of things have become too polarised. And energy is no different.' Rough decisions Now that the battle over zonal pricing is over, Centrica is turning its attention to Rough, the gas storage facility it runs 18 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire. It accounts for about half of the capacity the UK has to store gas. However, Mr O'Shea has warned that Rough risks closure by the end of the year unless ministers agree to help fund the site's redevelopment. 'Rough is going to lose about £100m this year and we can't sustain that,' he said. 'I think we have probably got to see something by the end of this year. 'If we get towards the end of the year and we've got a situation whereby we've got no prospect of making a profit, then we're just throwing good money after bad. It would be like a charitable donation, and that's not our business.' Rather than securing a handout, Centrica has asked ministers for a so-called cap and floor mechanism to help transform the 40-year-old site to store hydrogen as well as natural gas. This would provide a guaranteed minimum revenue level for the project - the floor – as well as limited excessive profits – the cap. Centrica has already stopped filling the facility amid mounting losses. Mr O'Shea said a full closure would involve the loss of hundreds of jobs. As well as impacting the local community, such a move threatens to deal a hammer blow to Britain's energy security, just years after the country recovered from one of its worst-ever energy crises following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Worse still, it also sends the wrong message to our allies in Europe, according to Mr O'Shea. 'If Rough closes, then the UK has just six days of gas storage available, compared to 100 in France, Netherlands and Germany. 'If we get into a crisis and the UK hasn't invested in gas storage, then I am not sure it will flow from the Continent. 'Politically, if you're the prime minister of France or Germany and you look at a country that hasn't invested in gas storage, then I am not sure that will work. There is a need for us to recognise the risk that no one likes a freeloader.'
The Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Ed Miliband's deputy sent secret WhatsApp messages to Labour rebels working to torpedo PM's welfare reforms
ED Miliband's protege sent secret WhatsApp messages to Labour rebels working to torpedo Keir Starmer's welfare reforms, The Sun on Sunday can reveal. Net Zero minister Miatta Fahnbulleh was active on key WhatsApp chats used to organise the revolt - posting several messages. She was even considering resigning to inflict maximum damage on the PM, senior Labour insiders believe. Ms Fahnbulleh is a former aide to Mr Miliband and he is believed to be working to help her to be party leader one day. After being elected MP last year, she was immediately handed a plum ministerial job in his energy department. The bombshell revelations will inevitably spark questions about Red Ed's loyalty to the PM. A Labour insider said: 'It's astonishing that after just a year, this minister is more interested in her own ambitions than delivering for the people who have elected her and the Labour government.' Sir Keir was forced to tear up his plan to trim £5 billion from Britain's bloated benefits bill after an astonishing Labour backbench rebellion late last month. Over 120 Labour MPs signed a rebel amendment scuppering the plan - forcing the PM into a humiliating U-turn. It was an extraordinary challenge to Sir Keir's leadership just a year after he swooped to power in a landslide victory. And now The Sun on Sunday can reveal that a Labour minister - Ms Fahnbulleh - was in the thick of the rebel plot. She was on two separate WhatsApp chats with other Labour MPs used to organise the revolt. Changes to UC & PIP payments in full as Labour reveals bruising welfare bill concessions in bid to quell rebellion One was called Sunday Lunch Organising and the other was called Buffet Organising - covert names which gave no indication of what was actually being discussed. The minister sent several texts on the groups, including one which described the government's welfare plan as a 'mess'. She also allegedly cast doubt over the explanation given by ministers regarding the reforms. Ms Fahnbulleh was also allegedly spotted having 'victory drinks' in Parliament's famous Terrace bar - overlooking the River Thames - with a gang of Labour welfare rebels on the day the PM was forced to U-turn. Last night, Ms Fahnbulleh's office said: 'What is implied here is simply untrue. Miatta publicly backed the government and voted for the Universal Credit Bill at every stage.' They declined to comment further on the Whatsapps. Ms Fahnbulleh was elected MP for Peckham, in south London - succeeding former Labour Party deputy Harriet Harman. A high flier, she has previously worked for Mr Miliband when he was Labour leader and ran the New Economics Foundation - a leftwing think-tank. Last year, Labour bible The New Statesman put her on their 'Left Power List' as one of the 50 most influential people in leftwing politics in Britain. A Labour insider said: 'She is close to Ed Miliband and it's a pretty open secret that she is his pick to be leader one day.' A spokesman for Mr Miliband said: 'These are spurious and nonsense allegations. Ed supported the welfare bill at all stages.' Who are Labour's 'five families' who could cause trouble for PM Sir Keir Starmer Labour's 'five families' of rival factions have the potential to cause trouble for Sir Keir Starmer. Here are the Mafia-style clans vying for power and influence in Britain's governing party. In a nod to The Godfather film, we have given each family a horses head rating to show how dangerous they are to the PM. THE HARD-LEFT: A hardcore of around 25 former die-hard Corbynistas who are in the Socialist Campaign group. They loathe the PM and want higher taxes and spending. Led by John McDonnell inside Labour. Includes Jeremy Corbyn's new party outside. They can inflict pain on No10, but are limited in number. Head rating: 2/5 THE SOFT LEFT: A large chunk of Labour MPs are in this faction, which led the welfare rebellion. Includes Ed Miliband, Louise Haigh and suspended welfare rebel Rachael Maskell. Group most likely to swing behind Angela Rayner for leader, has strong ties with trade unions and associated with 'King of the North' Andy Burnham. Horses head rating: 4/5 AMBITIOUS NEWBIES: Starmerites who swept to power in the 2024 landslide election and are being fasttracked to Cabinet. Include new Labour royalty Hamish Falconer and Georgia Gould. They are loyal - but ambitious. Horses head rating: 1/5 THE BLAIRITES: Devotees of Tony Blair and his brand of New Labour politics, they are pro business and back market reforms in the public sector. Includes Wes Streeting and Pat McFadden - both big players in Keir's government. Horses head rating: 1/5 REDWALLERS / BLUE LABOUR: Straight-talking faction representing Labour's old industrial heartlands of the North and Midlands. Want tougher immigration policies, a crime crackdown and investment in blue collar jobs. Include Jo White, Jonathan Hinder and Gareth Snell. Impatient for change and not afraid to rebel. Horses head rating: 3/5
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
We'll stop Nimbys from blocking nuclear power stations, say Tories
Nimbys will be stopped from blocking nuclear power stations in their area under Tory plans. The party wants to end the 'absurd' blocking of new nuclear sites through environmental impact assessments or regulations on habitats, and would make it impossible to challenge a new power station in court. The Tories have submitted amendments to the Government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill that would exempt nuclear power stations from being blocked or delayed on environmental grounds, to speed up energy production in the UK. They accused Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, of presiding over 'the highest prices for offshore wind in a decade' and called for more nuclear power to meet the UK's growing demand for electricity. The rule changes would see planning officers ignore all environmental considerations when building a new nuclear site, which is likely to anger locals and lead to public opposition. However, the party said it would also stop 'anti-growth activist groups from using lawfare to block or delay development and pushing up costs' by exempting the ministerial consent for new power stations from judicial review. Writing for The Telegraph, Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said the new Hinkley Point C power station in Somerset is set to be the most expensive in history because of 'bureaucracy and rampant lawfarism'. '[There is] Endless lawfare, environmental paperwork, and legal challenges that do little to protect nature but create plenty of expensive work for planning consultants and pencil-pushing bureaucrats,' she said. 'Every single delay and absurd mitigation measure adds more cost.' The amendments would only become law with the support of Labour MPs, which is not expected to happen. Labour has previously said it will reform the same rules raised by the Conservatives, but will not exempt them from judicial review or all environmental assessments. In February, Downing Street pointed to a 30,000-page environmental assessment that Hinkley Point planners were required to produce to receive permission to build. The last new power station was constructed in the UK in 1995, and while domestic demand for electricity has grown many renewable energy sources are not expected to start producing power until the next decade. Responding to the Conservative proposal, Sam Richards, chief executive of pro-growth campaign group Britain Remade, said the UK had the 'worst of both worlds' with a planning system that does not protect nature and slows down infrastructure projects. 'These amendments are radical, but the status quo where safe, clean nuclear power projects are delayed and made more expensive due to repeated legal challenges and poorly drafted environmental legislation is intolerable,' he said. 'Nuclear power isn't just safe, it is also low carbon. It also has the smallest land footprint of any form of energy. Without nuclear power we have to turn to sources that take up more land and impact nature more.' No more fish discos – cheap, reliable energy must come first By Claire Coutinho It's no secret that I'm a fan of nuclear power. In government, the Conservatives ended a 30-year moratorium on new nuclear, with two new plants consented, a third agreed and a fleet of next-generation smaller reactors on the way. While Labour is paying lip-service to continuing that work, they have downgraded our ambitions by scrapping our 24GW target, the third nuclear plant I had agreed on Anglesey in Wales, and downgrading our ambitions for our small modular reactor programme. This is because Ed Miliband's ideological obsession with wind and solar farms has made him blind to their soaring costs and the challenges they pose for our beautiful but small islands. This is an enormous mistake. It's time to double down on nuclear, not scale it back. Nuclear can provide us with the stable, reliable, 24/7 power that we need if we want to have a prosperous nation and support new energy hungry industries like AI. Only nuclear gives us a secure supply chain that can give us real energy independence, without having to import more and more solar panels, batteries and critical minerals from coal-powered China. And crucially it is better for nature, using less than 0.1 per cent of the land required by wind and solar farms. Choosing a nuclear future is our best chance at protecting the glorious British countryside we all love – and it produces zero emissions to boot. We need to bring costs down The one problem? We need to bring costs down. Hinkley Point C is set to be the most expensive nuclear power station in history. Not because of the technology – Hinkley C is almost 70 per cent more expensive than a project building the very same safe reactor design in Finland. It is, in part, because of our own bureaucracy and rampant lawfarism. Endless lawfare, environmental paperwork, and legal challenges that do little to protect nature but create plenty of expensive work for planning consultants and pencil-pushing bureaucrats. Every single delay and absurd mitigation measure adds more cost. The prime example is the 'fish disco' at Hinkley – where EDF has spent eight years negotiating the installation of 288 underwater loudspeakers, at the cost of millions of pounds, to prevent one fishing trawler's worth of fish from swimming into their water pipes. Today, we are putting a stop to that. We have tabled radical amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to stop a system which puts its addiction to paperwork above the national interest and our need for cheap, reliable energy. No more environmental impact assessments 30 times longer than the complete works of Shakespeare. No more pointless, gold-plated fish discos. No more bogus judicial reviews from anti-growth activist groups who just want to kill off the infrastructure that is critical to our national and energy security. I have every sympathy with those who truly want to protect nature. I believe, as does Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, that our love of our natural world sits deep in our national soul. But this self-defeating, sclerotic system is nature's own worst enemy. In making it impossible to build cheap nuclear on a small number of sites, we will just end up building thousands upon thousands of wind turbines and solar farms in every corner of the country. Nuclear produces, by far, more power per acre than any other source of energy. This could not be more important on a small island like ours. Dr John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation has calculated that wind and solar farms use up to 3,000 times more land than nuclear to produce the same amount of energy. Abundant nuclear is not a pipe dream In some areas, up to 8 per cent of all land is already covered by solar farm applications – and this is only going to soar as Ed Miliband's targets mean building more than ever before, faster than ever before. Cheap, abundant nuclear is not a pipe dream. Some of the cheapest and cleanest electricity in Europe can be found in France, Finland and Sweden and all of them rely on nuclear for baseload. As ever, it is the green anti-growthers who are shooting themselves in the foot by opposing the only form of cheap, reliable, secure, clean energy. It's no secret the West is in trouble – post-Covid debt, challenging demographics and stagnating growth are putting pressure on governments of all colours. But in nuclear power, Britain has a ready-made escape plan. We just need politicians brave enough to change the law to allow us to carry it through. Britain is in touching distance of a new era of prosperity. With cheap, abundant, reliable nuclear energy, we could end the poverty mindset that says British consumers should rearrange their lives to suit an energy system that depends on the weather. We could take the brakes off new energy hungry data centres and even, dare I say, let people have air conditioning.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
‘Dangerous and detached': Steel industry chief slams Ed Miliband on net zero
'It is real madness at the heart of success of governments who don't understand the principles of good business' On the latest Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player below, columnists Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson are joined by Simon Boyd, the managing director of REIDsteel, to discuss the future of the steel industry in the UK. Mr Boyd did not hold back in his criticism of Ed Miliband, the Secretary for Energy and Climate Change. He said: 'He is so far detached from reality and I think it's quite dangerous.' He warned that Mr Miliband's net zero policies were wrecking UK manufacturing, 'exporting jobs overseas and then reimporting the product made in dirty factories.' Mr Boyd described net zero as 'an absolute disaster' for steel and manufacturing, and said he did not understand the confusing government policy. 'They're encouraging everyone to buy British steel with one hand, but with the other, they demand low carbon content materials. It doesn't work.' Mr Boyd called for public ownership of British Steel to save the industry: 'Only public ownership will put the investment in to protect this core industry.' On energy, he advocated using domestic resources and nuclear: 'I'd continue drilling in the North Sea and push for modular reactors.' He concluded that the current net zero drive was 'absolute madness' and strangling UK manufacturing.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Energy giant SSE sees UK dry spell hit water power generation
SSE has said it produced less energy from its water power stations in recent months as parts of Scotland faced the driest spring in more than 60 years. The Perth-based energy giant reported a 4% decrease in output in May and June, compared with the same period last year. This was due to 'unfavourable weather conditions' affecting its hydro power stations, which work by harnessing the power of moving water to generate electricity. SSE's hydro generation dropped by about 40% in the three months to June, compared with the same period a year ago. Scotland has experienced a lack of rainfall, with regions in the east seeing the driest spring since 1964, according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. SSE told investors that the dry conditions offset strong operational availability across its renewable power plants. Meanwhile, the company welcomed 'clarity' from the Government's decision not to split the country into different energy pricing zones. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed earlier this month that the UK would retain a single national wholesale price for electricity but reform the current system. SSE said in a statement to investors that the decision brings 'welcome clarity for both investors and consumers whilst sending a strong investment signal that reaffirms the UK as a world-leading renewables market'. The form said its financial outlook for the year continues to be subject to weather, market conditions and plant availability, with the key winter months still to come.
