The things this column does for Reaction subscribers. Last night, I watched Ed Miliband’s contribution to the King’s Speech debate in which he discussed the Starmer government’s approach to energy. Miliband’s speech was everything that we knew it would be: statist, interventionist, virtuous and tinged with sadness that his opposite number, Claire Coutinho, was unable to recognise that she should simply bend the knee to our new government.
Alongside the high moral tone in Miliband’s response to Coutinho’s speech, there was included a phrase that New Labour loved to use back in the late 1990s when he accused Coutinho of having a “brass neck” in criticising his response. No doubt he will, like his New Labour forebears, soon be telling us that he “will take no lessons” from former Conservative ministers given their record in office. The return of these cliches is very much not to be applauded.
To be fair to Miliband, he did try, up to a point, to take a non-partisan approach and even managed to praise some Tories for their work in government but these were Tories whose views he approves of like Chris Skidmore and Lord (Alok) Sharma. He was even forced to agree, despite appearing to say much the opposite, that in offshore wind at least, the UK was in a relatively strong position. But while Miliband may partly acknowledge that he’s building on fairly firm foundations, he wants to do a lot more: a lot more onshore wind – which is largely pointless given the UK’s ability to build more offshore wind power generation that it can ever possibly need – and a lot more solar and, to that end, he has already approved the building of 1.3 GWs of solar farms in his first fortnight in office. In his speech, Miliband pointed out that ground-mounted solar used just 0.1% of land in the UK so far and that Britain lags far behind other countries in roof-top solar.
On these points, Miliband is surely right: solar is cheap, easy to install, easy to connect and, by using ever cheaper battery storage in tandem, can even be used when the sun isn’t shining. But again much of the groundwork has been done. If you drive west out of London on the M4, there are already many acres of solar panels taking up unloved land right next to the motorway and we can expect to see much more of this. Can you be a NIMBY when the panels are being built within five metres of the hard shoulder of a three-lane motorway? I doubt it.
Of course, Miliband reserved his highest self-praise for the establishment of Great British Energy (GBE) which this column has tackled many times before. As he put it, “I am extremely proud that this is the first Bill for decades that will enable us to establish a UK-wide publicly owned energy generation company.”
The role of government in the energy sector is well-established globally. The vital nature of national grids and the cost and complexity involved means that the state has to be involved to a greater, and it is usually a greater, or lesser extent. But GBE’s mission is more than just being a quango to help others invest. As Miliband said in the House, “It (GBE) will invest in technologies such as nuclear, offshore wind, tidal, hydrogen and carbon capture, and ensure a just transition for our oil and gas communities. GB Energy will also oversee the biggest expansion of community energy in British history through our local power plan.” And yet, such is the cost and complexity of the energy sector that £8.3 billion of taxpayers’ cash won’t get GBE very far in that mission: so either Miliband will need more cash or GBE won’t fulfil its mission. It seems a safe bet that Rachel Reeves, having won one battle with Miliband over money, will win this one too.
Ed Miliband is a great survivor and a canny politician: he must be to have survived his election loss in 2015 and then, through hard work and graft, got himself back into cabinet in a senior job nine years later. His programme is all his own work – he really believes this stuff – and he’s earnest and serious about what he wants to achieve. Miliband is also partisan and pious which means his pleas for cross-party co-operation will mostly flounder but it’s possible his whole project will flounder. For all the excitement around approving solar farms, building onshore wind, doubling offshore wind and creating GBE, there was one four letter word missing from Miliband’s speech without which his whole programme is just a castle in the air.
That word is grid and until he gets serious about transmitting all this power he wants to generate, Miliband’s plans will go nowhere.
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