Ahead of Labour’s crucial Budget, green industrialist and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince OBE has written to every MP and Peer calling for urgent reform of Britain’s energy market.
Vince warns that unless Labour brings down household bills before the next election, the country risks sliding into the hands of the Reform Party.
The intervention comes alongside the launch of Babelfish, Vince’s new multi-media platform designed to challenge political complacency. Its first edition — an eight-page Budget special sent to all MPs, MSPs, Welsh Assembly Members and Peers — is dedicated entirely to energy reform. Contributors to the publication include Vince himself, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey MP, political commentator Kevin Maguire, Labour MP Luke Johnson, and Johnathan Bean of Fuel Poverty Action.
In his accompanying letter, Vince argues that Britain’s energy system is “a rip-off that punishes households and weakens the economy,” describing the UK’s rules as uniquely dysfunctional and needlessly expensive. He sets out three reforms he says could halve energy bills, cut inflation and interest rates, and lift more than a million people out of poverty.
The first reform calls for the UK to end the rule that links the price of green electricity to the global price of gas — a mechanism Vince says has added tens of billions to household bills over the last five years and forces families to pay fossil-fuel prices for cheap, homegrown wind and solar power. His second proposal urges the government to adopt a proven green pricing mechanism to stabilise the North Sea energy sector as it transitions away from fossil fuels, protecting jobs and investment while lowering customer costs. The third reform focuses on Britain’s energy networks, which Vince describes as foreign-owned regulated monopolies making excessive profits while underinvesting and raising prices. He argues that proper regulation could save households billions every year.
Vince said: “We can fix the system, cut bills, boost growth and strengthen Britain’s economy — all in one go. The prize is huge and the fix is simple. Labour must act now, before it is too late.”
