Westminster isn’t delivering for energy rich Scotland
I’m old enough to remember when the Labour Party said they’d cut heating bills by £300.
Cast your mind back to July and you’ll remember it was all over Labour leaflets and heard repeatedly in speeches.
Now we know the truth.
Because the reality is the British Government, in its most recent red incarnation, will instead rob nearly one million Scottish pensioners of their £300 Winter Fuel Payment and, perversely, allow heating bills to rise by 10%.
Yet open the blinds in Aberdeen and you’ll see ships servicing our historic oil and gas industry, squint and you’ll glimpse the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, close your eyes and you can picture the 27gw ScotWind developments springing up across the coast.
Yet when the letterbox snaps shut you’ll want your eyes tested as you see the postie has delivered you the highest energy bill on these islands.
For those of us minded to believe that energy rich Scotland should not be home to Scots living in fuel poverty, the question remains this: Why is it Scots continue to pay the energy prices of a country starved of natural resources? The answer is Westminster has our energy prices pegged to the price of gas, Westminster retains a grid not fit for purpose, Westminster is piling billions into the most expensive nuclear power plant in the world and Westminster has stood in the way of Scotland’s renewable energy future.
The fact is, our extortionate heating bills are another symptom of Westminster and the diagnosis remains the same. Only with the full powers of an independent country can Scotland utilise our natural resources and talent to the benefit of our people.
Because not only am I old enough to remember the Labour Party’s heating bill pledge, I’m old enough to have seen some £450bn syphoned from Scotland’s waters straight into the coffers of the Treasury. The wind and water of our nation allows us to stand on the precipice of a second age of energy yet as the world enters that green energy goldrush, Westminster hangs like a millstone round our necks.
The chatter of potential, of opportunity and of vision must end and the hard talk of delivery should be well under way. That means carbon capture at Peterhead funded, hydrogen financed, renewables funding increased and our offshore industries taxed fairly to encourage investment.
All of us know there can be few greater injustices than fuel poverty in an energy rich country like ours, so what of the Labour Government’s solution to this?
Their flagship GB Energy.
And what do we know of the fabled GB Energy?
We know Labour rejected amendments to have at its core a requirement to cut bills and honour Labour’s campaign promise. GB Energy’s chairperson couldn’t even spell out when and if it would lower customer bills at all.
Perhaps most worryingly, we know it has the paltry sum of around £1bn a year behind it after they scrapped their £28 billion green energy pledge too. For context, SSE alone have some £40bn in the low carbon investment pipeline so you’d be right to question what the scale of GB Energy’s ambitions actually amount to.
Quite frankly, I just don’t think they get it.
First and foremost, Scotland’s natural resources should be used to cut energy bills, to invest in Scottish infrastructure and to deliver Scottish jobs. Scotland’s revenues should not be used to fund nuclear power plants in England or prop up Rachel Reeves’ austerity agenda in the Treasury.
So when Sir Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar hope that you somehow forget their pledge to cut bills by £300 or tell pensioners there’s no longer money available, just remember Scotland has the energy, we just need the power.