Defence Secretary John Healey has written to the developers of Whitestone Solar Farm to oppose the development of the 750 MW project in his constituency on the grounds of ‘proportionality, safety, and fairness’. Presumably he’ll be writing to his Cabinet colleague Ed Miliband soon too, because the proposal is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), and it will ultimately cross Red Ed’s desk for sign-off. Just last week, the government approved the UK’s largest solar farm in Lincolnshire…
Healey has told his constituents today, however, that all this “must be done right, with proper community engagement and without sacrificing our local environment“:
“I summarise my concerns below. If you go ahead with a formal application for this development, I plan to make a detailed submission to the Planning Inspectorate. My objections will not be made alone; many other local voices. organisations, and statutory consultees will be doing the same. I have long supported the need for Britain to expand renewable energy generation. It is cheap, home-grown, job-creating and essential for cutting our dependence on fossil fuels. And foreign state suppliers. When people elected us to government last year, we made a commitment to Clean Power by 2030 But, in my view, every project must still meet three tests. It must be proportionate, it must be safe. and it must be fair. Whitestone fails all three.”
Approving virtually all these NSIPs is central to Miliband’s agenda, not that you’d know that from Healey’s letter. It should make for a few awkward conversations at the Cabinet table. What happened to backing the builders, not the blockers?
In a latest blow to Red Ed’s net zero crusade, Britain’s biggest power generator has warned that falling wind speeds are driving up energy bills – and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. RWE, which supplies around 15% of the UK’s electricity and increasingly relies on wind power said:
“Wholesale electricity prices in our European core markets also rose. Contributing factors were an increase in the price of fuels and emission allowances as well as unfavourable wind conditions.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts that global winds will continue to slow in the decades ahead. Though when there’s too much wind, bill-payers have to pay farms to turn turbines off. Brits are set cough up £1.26 billion in “constraint payments” this year…
At the same time, Miliband is planning to pay developers up to £116 per megawatt hour for the power they generate from wind farms, adding an estimated £24 a year to the average domestic power bill. Red Ed’s big energy plan just more hot air…
Great British Energy – Nuclear (not to be confused with the inexplicably separate quango Great British Energy) is searching for a new chairman. ‘GBE-N’, as it is known in the ever growing domain of government bodies poking around in the energy industry, is in charge of delivering small modular reactors (SMRs) in the UK, among other things. That programme has been ongoing since at least 2015…
Now Red Ed is looking for a new head for the organisation – and a live job advert shows a cool salary of more than £203,268 per annum for just three days a week. Meltdown for taxpayers…
The government is banking on deploying SMRs in the 2030s. The new chair will oversee that target with a “more agile, programmatic and faster delivery approach than has been achieved previously”. That won’t be hard, because currently zero SMRs have been delivered. It’s such a civil service priority it’s a three day a week role…
The UK DOGE FoI Unit has discovered that DESNZ is spending on online advertising – including influencer marketing – at a high rate. Someone has to promote those dodgy heat pumps…
In the last 12 months the energy department has spent a total of £168,576.98 on social media promotions, and a total of £1,194,402.78 on online advertising. They say this “may be inclusive of influencer activities procured via media buying”…
The department is ludicrously blocking the exact amount spent on influencer marketing because they claim the info would “harm the DESNZ’ business reputation and weaken the DESNZ’ position in a competitive environment.” Miliband’s team don’t want the public to know how much taxpayer cash is going on fashion models to pose with heat pumps in castles…
The taxpayer may have a view on where their cash should go instead. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
Co-conspirators will remember when Pat McFadden ordered an “immediate freeze” on government procurement cards back in early March. In February – before the so-called ‘freeze’ – Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero civil servants racked up a tidy £30,889 bill. In March, after the freeze was supposedly in effect, spending surged to £50,161. A 62% increase…
Somehow the pen-pushers managed to spaff £40,578 of that on a gift voucher company “Appreciate Group plc”. The firm offers “Love2shop Gift Card, a pre-paid gift card; Love2shop Gift Voucher, a multi-retailer voucher; Love2shop Holidays.” Taxpayer cash going up in smoke…
Last month Guido revealed staffing costs at the DESNZ had surged by £16 million since Red Ed Miliband took charge – hiring an extra 3,564 mandarins. More staff, more gift vouchers…
Guido hears a decision on zonal pricing for electricity is due imminently. It has been long-awaited…
Zonal pricing – otherwise known as locational pricing – has been the subject of a massive lobbying war between electricity suppliers. It would see the cost of electricity come from regional supply and demand so prices would vary where energy is generated and consumed. Government sources tell Guido that the decision on proposals has been taken away from Miliband and is now sitting with the Cabinet Office and No10 who will make a final decision. This is abnormal and indicates the level of concern from the top of Labour here…
DESNZ has been sitting on an internal report which stipulates that consumer costs may drop by £59 billion if plans are adopted. Guido also hears there are concerns that a large-scale change to pricing will face an immediate backlash and potentially stir more Labour backbench unrest while consumer benefits would only be delivered after the next election. No credit for that – Reform could be in…
A decision is mooted for before summer recess on 22 July. Amid rebellions and a desire for short-term wins the radical proposals are likely to be shelved. The plan for (not much) change…
UPDATE: An industry source tells Guido the government modelled the main alternative option – keeping but modifying national pricing – and it found half the benefits to bill-payers compared to the zonal model.
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”