It’s Broke, Fix It.  

Where British Energy Policy Went Wrong and How to Get it Right.

In the 1990s, Britain embarked on a bold new direction in energy policy. The state stepped back, and the markets were allowed to forecast future energy demand and how to meet it. The resulting privatisation of British energy led to increased generating capacity and, crucially, lower energy bills for households and businesses. Fast forward to 2025, however, and Britain has the highest energy prices in the developed world and a grid becoming less reliable by the day.

It’s Broke, Fix It lays bare how Britain’s energy policy has gone so wrong, so fast. Ever since the Climate Change Act 2008, British energy policy has been subordinated to climate policy. Rather than focusing on consumers, the energy sector has been pressured into aiding government Net Zero targets, which have done little good for the world and catastrophic harm to British prosperity. Between 2010 and 2024, Britain lost 33.3 GW of reliable dispatchable capacity from coal, gas, and nuclear. It was replaced with 44.9 GW from renewables. Yet despite astronomical investment, the unreliability of wind and solar means we are producing around 24% less electricity, while bills soar to cover yet more fruitless green investment. We are producing less with more. This is the fundamental economic fact of our current energy policy.

Any government which takes seriously the energy security and economic prosperity of the UK must radically change course. Households are stretched to breaking point and energy-intensive industry is in freefall. Consumers no longer even have the watchdogs on their side, with Ofgem having become a mere state enforcer. Policymakers must understand which legislation got us here, repealing and amending it urgently. They must also scrap our current energy department, clear out the leadership of Ofgem, and urgently restore dispatchable capacity to the grid. Cheap, reliable, abundant energy is essential to national prosperity. Britain had it once, and it can have it again. But we must not leave it too late.