The UK government has announced the creation of Great British Grid (GBG), a publicly-owned entity tasked with speeding up connections to the grid and upgrading the electricity network.
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, made the announcement as part of his keynote speech at the annual Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
At the start of his address, he drew strong applause from the audience when he vowed to overturn Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s reforms to give the public greater control over housing, water and energy.
Focusing on the energy sector, he revealed that the new GBG will be “a publicly-owned company that will challenge the private sector operators. It will increase competition, drive down costs and speed up connections so businesses can expand and grow more quickly.”
It will operate as a “new branch” of Great British Energy (GBE), the publicly owned energy firm announced in July 2024 that became law last year and is tasked with investing in clean energy generation. It will also...