Labour's energy nationalisation plans expand again: Networks, offshore windfarms AND the Big Six supply businesses

The release of Labour's manifesto today saw a further expansion in its plans for nationalising the UK's energy industry – with confirmation that the Labour vote at conference this year to nationalise the 'Big 6' supply companies would become official Labour policy:

"The supply arms of the Big Six energy companies will be brought into public ownership where they will continue to supply households with energy while helping them to reduce their energy demands."

Back in May 2019, Labour published a pamphlet (Bringing energy home: Labour's proposal for publicly owned energy networks) which set out a little more detail on its 2017 Manifesto plans to nationalise the pipelines and cables that deliver gas and electricity to homes and businesses in Great Britain (GB). We published a Policy Matters briefing on these plans, including looking at steps that impacted businesses and investors could take to protect against the implication from Labour that compensation might not be at full market value.

In September 2019, Labour went further with their 'People's Power Plan' which would dramatically expand the pipeline of offshore wind farms and bring them into majority (51%) public ownership. Labour's reference to the "existing 11GW" of offshore wind generation, to distinguish from their new pipeline of 51% publicly owned projects, implies that these partial nationalisation plans include at least some projects which are currently already under construction as well as all projects which are merely consented or in pre-planning stages.

We are currently working on an updated version of our Policy Matters briefing on Labour's energy nationalisation plans. Subscribe to this blog to ensure that you do not miss it.