What does the UK’s ‘political realignment’ mean for energy policy?

The first slew of analyses of the 2019 election result have focussed on the Conservatives taking control of long-held Labour seats across the Midlands and the North of England. As such, there is no shortage of suggestions that these new voters, who may have ‘held their nose while voting Tory,’ could well feature prominently in policy decisions made by the new administration.

Many of these seats were targeted by Theresa May’s Conservatives, whose offerings on energy policy were to be formed through a controversial ‘Cost of Energy Review’ that would shape thinking for the coming term.

While there were suspected sinister motives behind the review, which was widely ignored across Westminster once certain senior aides were dispatched with, the premise behind its commissioning holds firm. The cost of energy remains a concern for many voters, especially those in newly blue seats. Thankfully, however, the actions needed to help out are clear enough to be instigated from day one.

Northern wall

Despite the months-long election campaign debate around when the UK should be aiming to be carbon neutral, for most of the country the only interaction with the energy sector comes in the form of a bill through the letterbox.

Keeping costs down has long been a mantra of the UK government, and is likely to take on further precedence should the Conservative party pivot to reflect the views of its new voters.

Many of the seats won by the Tories for the first time have higher-than-average levels of fuel poverty. Stoke-on-Trent Central is the highest, with close to 17% of homes affected. Around 15% of homes in the West Bromwich seats are also fuel poor, around 50% more than the national average.

There are more than 100,000 homes in fuel poverty across the 22 English constituencies that are now blue for the first time, Government data shows. One would expect action to tackle this, in the form of both using less energy and making energy cheaper, to be high on the to-do list.

Thankfully, the policy options are not difficult. More low-cost renewables already featured in the election campaign, with a new 40 GW target for offshore wind capacity. But the Johnson majority surely offers space to open the door to new onshore wind, with the dwindling number of Conservative members opposing them outnumbered by those whose have a keener interest in locking in lower energy bills for their constituents.

Wrapping up

2020 will be a pivotal year for other areas of decarbonisation, with housing one of the most pressing. Unsurprisingly, regions with high levels of fuel poverty are correlated with leaky homes. In the same 22 first-time English Tory seats, there are more than 144,000 homes rated at E or below on the EPC register (which only tracks properties registered since 2008).

Policies to tackle energy waste from homes is one of the CCC’s top priorities, and was an early feature of the election campaign. These leaky homes are already set to be offered upgrades under the 2017 Clean Growth Strategy, however progress has been curbed by a lack of policy action.

For a government expected to be less afraid of infrastructure spending and keen to ‘level up’ parts of the nation that have made their voices heard at the ballot box, large-scale action to make homes warmer and nicer places to live would be an obvious place to start.

Bans