Founder of Ecotricity, Dale Vince, has welcomed reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is examining options to decouple electricity prices from gas markets, calling it a “vital and long-overdue reform” to reduce energy bills and improve economic stability.
Vince said the current system, in which gas prices set the wholesale price of electricity, continues to expose households and businesses to volatile global energy markets, even as the UK increases its reliance on renewable generation.
He said: “This is big news. I first raised this issue in 2022, at the height of the last energy crisis. The ‘link’ added £70 billion to our energy bills in that crisis, and it’s vital we do something about it. Even in a normal year, it adds £5 billion to our bills. I’m looking forward to seeing the details of what the Government proposes to do. We published a roadmap of exactly how to break this link about a year ago.
“In 2023, in the middle of the last crisis, Breaking the Link would have knocked £43 billion off the nation’s energy bills. Our businesses could have saved £30 billion and households could have saved £13 billion. A NIESR study we commissioned found that, in the same year, inflation could have been lower by a whopping 1.5 percentage points. This would have led to Bank of England rates nearly 1% lower, growth up by 0.6 percentage points, and an extra £36 billion in nominal GDP. Every Briton would have been £300 better off—not just for that year, but for several to come.
“For too long, we’ve let international gas markets set the price of all our electricity—including home-grown green energy from the wind and sun. It makes no sense. This link leaves British homes and businesses exposed to every global wobble going—Trump’s war on Iran shows that once again.
“We’re paying more for our electricity than we need to, for no good reason. And we can’t actually enjoy the benefits of cheaper green energy from our own endless supply of wind and sun—unless and until we break the price link between it and fossil gas. It’s that simple. Real energy independence is about making and pricing our own green energy right here.
“We’ve shown the Government why it matters with our report on the wider economic impact, and we’ve shown them how to do it via our step-by-step roadmap.
“Breaking the link is the single biggest thing we can do to lower our energy bills and avoid this kind of price crisis—but it’s only one of three energy market reforms we’ve proposed, which together could halve our energy bills. We can nail our energy bills to the floor if we do all three, with massive benefits for our economy, our cost of living, and levels of poverty in our country. What are we waiting for? Our energy market needs reform—the serious, effective kind, not the populist, empty-vessel kind.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
The issue of Breaking the Link was first raised in 2022. The Tories responded with legislation which was never enacted and still exists. The Green Britain Foundation produced a report on Breaking the Link in 2024. In 2025, we commissioned NIESR to model the macroeconomic effects of Breaking the Link, and Ecotricity commissioned Cornwall Insight to produce a roadmap to Breaking the Link.
