Nearly half of Conservative voters support the renationalisation of Britain’s energy industry, a poll has found, as the incoming prime minister is urged to embrace radical solutions to the cost of living crisis.
Margaret Thatcher privatised the energy industry over the course of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but there have been growing calls for a reversal amid fears annual energy bills could top £6,000 this winter.
Meanwhile, an energy expert has accused the government of glossing over the potential for blackouts in the coming months, warning that there will not be gas to generate sufficient electricity.
Poll
Forty-seven per cent of Tory voters favour returning the energy companies to public ownership, according to a poll in today's Times newspaper, with 28% opposed to such a move and 25% unsure.
More than half the voters questioned said they would have to turn down their thermostat or limit the time their heating was on over the coming months. Twenty-one per cent said they would not be able to heat their home “except on a very limited basis”, and 5% did not believe they could heat their home at all.
Almost half said they would not be able to afford their energy bills without cutting other expenditure. A quarter said they would not be able to afford heating even if they reduced their spending elsewhere.
Turning back the clock
British Gas was privatised in 1986 and the electricity sector was sold off in 1990 when the 12 regional distributors were privatised.
The same year the Central Electricity Generating Board was broken up into four companies. PowerGen, National Power and Nuclear Electric were dedicated to the generation of electricity and the National Grid was responsible for transmission.
The renationalisation of the utilities formed a core part of Labour’s manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. At the time, the CBI estimated that such a move could cost the taxpayer at least £196 billion — although this figure was subsequently disputed.
Blackouts
One energy expert has accused the government of failing to be honest about the prospect of blackouts this winter.
David Cox, chief executive of London Energy Consulting, said there were likely to be shortages in the coming months.
“We might be short of gas to the extent that we have blackouts, we don’t have enough gas to burn to make electricity, and that is a serious problem the government is glossing over at the moment,” he told BBC Scotland.
Professor Alex Kemp of Aberdeen University says, in the short-term, it is “difficult to see any alleviation” to the current power problems plaguing the UK.
He told Energy Voice that it is now a case of “planning for it”, and agreed that the phrase ‘energy crisis’ is appropriate with summer coming to its end.