Ed Miliband rejects claim southerners would pay more for electricity under zonal pricing plan
Good morning. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has been doing an interview round this morning. The government wants to talk about a £300m investment in offshore wind. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero sums it up in its news release like this.
Workers and businesses in the UK’s industrial heartlands will benefit from an initial £300m of funding through Great British Energy to invest in supply chains for domestic offshore wind. It is expected that the investment will directly and indirectly mobilise billions in additional private investment – helping de-risk clean energy projects and supporting thousands of jobs and revitalising the UK’s industrial heartlands.
The public investment complements the £43bn of private investment pledged for clean energy projects since July.
But Miliband has spent more time talking about a story on the front page of the Daily Telegraph this morning saying that Miliband is “poised to approve changes that would mean households in the south pay more for electricity than those in Scotland and the north”. The Telegraph says:
The energy secretary has been weighing up whether to push ahead with zonal pricing, which would split the country’s single national power market into different regions.
Supporters say the change will cut household electricity bills overall by reducing the need for grid upgrades, while opponents counter that it will create a “postcode lottery” and deter investment in wind and solar farms.
But in a blow to critics, The Telegraph has been told that government officials have advised Mr Miliband to press ahead with the policy.
Speaking to the Today programme this morning, Miliband said claims that he would be jacking up electricity prices for southerners were
Asked about the report, he said:
Copper-bottomed nonsense than the Daily Telegraph. No decision has been made on this issue.
This is an incredibly complex question that we are looking at about how we reform our energy market.
There are two options, zonal pricing and reformed national pricing.
Whatever route we go down, my bottom line is bills have got to fall, and they should fall throughout the country. I’m not about to introduce a post code lottery. I’m determined we don’t do that. But absolutely no decision has been made. We’re going to take our time over this very complex and important decision.
Alert readers will notice that he did not deny that zonal pricing was an option, as the Telegraph reported. But he was denying that he might implement a change that would put prices up in parts of the country.
Miliband said zonal pricing was an option when the last government started the process of considering electricity market reform.
Asked what factors Miliband would consider when deciding whether or not to change the way the electricity market operates, he replied:
My test of any reform – I’m not going to get into the detail now – is will it cut bills and will it do it across the country in a fair way.
I’m not in favour of a post code lottery on these on bills.
Actually, it’s already the case that different parts of the country to pay different amounts for bills.
But what I do not want to do is to make that situation worse, or somehow jack up bills in one part of the country in favour of another.
I will post more from his interviews soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales before it sets off on a voyage to the Indo-Pacific. He will be speaking to broadcasters.
9.05am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, speaks at the opening of a two-day energy security summit in London.
9.30am: The Office for National Statistics publishes crime figures for England and Wales in 2024.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference in Dover.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is campaigning in Warwickshire.
Afternoon (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is giving interviews in Washington to US broadcasters, including Fox News.
3pm: Starmer is meeting Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, for talks in No 10.
Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, is on a campaign visit in the East Midlands.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Miliband opens energy security summit in London with message from king saying its work is of ‘vital importance’
Miliband ends his speech by reading out a message from King Charles, who, he says, is very interested in this summit.
In his message the king said:
As we all navigate the transition to cleaner energy for our planet and energy security for our citizens, summits such as these are of vital importance in facilitating shared learning between nations, particularly those in the global south and across the Commonwealth.
Events over recent years have shown that, when well managed, the transition to more sustainable energy sources can itself lead to more resilient and secure energy systems.
While each country will follow its individual path, there are many shared challenges and opportunities on which we can work together as partners.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in this summit on the future of energy security, and to send my warmest best wishes for productive discussions over the coming days.
Miliband says there are huge benefits from countries coperating on energy security.
And he says the supporters of clean energy solutions are the “optimists”.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw family finances, business finances, public finances wrecked as fossil fuel prices rocketed on the global market …
As with many other countries, we’re a price taker, not a price maker in international fossil fuel markets.
So our vision of low carbon power goes well beyond the climate imperative, important as that is. Homegrown, low carbon power is our nationally chosen route to energy security.
Miliband says the government’s starting point is that there can be no international security without energy security.
He says the IEA was set up after the oil crisis of 1973.
[Since then] the challenges we face have changed, but I think the principle underpinning the IEA’s work, that countries need to collaborate to secure the uninterrupted supply of energy at an affordable price, remains the same.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, is speaking now at the opening of the international energy security summit in London. There is a live feed at the top of the page.
He starts with a tribute to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which has organised the conference, and its leader, Fatih Birol.
Ofcom announces new rules for tech firms to keep children safe online
Social media and other internet platforms will be legally required to block children’s access to harmful content from July or face large fines, Ofcom has announced. Dan Milmo has the story.
Dale Vince, founder of the green energy company Ecotricity, was also on the Today programme this morning. He said that zonal pricing for electricity – the proposal that Ed Miliband confirmed he was considering (see 8.41am) – would be a “terrrible idea”. He explained:
We’re going to take a single energy market we have in our country today that works very well, break it into 12 different regions and in five regions – the people behind this idea produced a report that says in five regions in our country,people will pay more. That’s where 41 million people live. And I haven’t seen the single benefit from zonal pricing anybody’s reporting so far.
Ed Miliband rejects claim southerners would pay more for electricity under zonal pricing plan
Good morning. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has been doing an interview round this morning. The government wants to talk about a £300m investment in offshore wind. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero sums it up in its news release like this.
Workers and businesses in the UK’s industrial heartlands will benefit from an initial £300m of funding through Great British Energy to invest in supply chains for domestic offshore wind. It is expected that the investment will directly and indirectly mobilise billions in additional private investment – helping de-risk clean energy projects and supporting thousands of jobs and revitalising the UK’s industrial heartlands.
The public investment complements the £43bn of private investment pledged for clean energy projects since July.
But Miliband has spent more time talking about a story on the front page of the Daily Telegraph this morning saying that Miliband is “poised to approve changes that would mean households in the south pay more for electricity than those in Scotland and the north”. The Telegraph says:
The energy secretary has been weighing up whether to push ahead with zonal pricing, which would split the country’s single national power market into different regions.
Supporters say the change will cut household electricity bills overall by reducing the need for grid upgrades, while opponents counter that it will create a “postcode lottery” and deter investment in wind and solar farms.
But in a blow to critics, The Telegraph has been told that government officials have advised Mr Miliband to press ahead with the policy.
Speaking to the Today programme this morning, Miliband said claims that he would be jacking up electricity prices for southerners were
Asked about the report, he said:
Copper-bottomed nonsense than the Daily Telegraph. No decision has been made on this issue.
This is an incredibly complex question that we are looking at about how we reform our energy market.
There are two options, zonal pricing and reformed national pricing.
Whatever route we go down, my bottom line is bills have got to fall, and they should fall throughout the country. I’m not about to introduce a post code lottery. I’m determined we don’t do that. But absolutely no decision has been made. We’re going to take our time over this very complex and important decision.
Alert readers will notice that he did not deny that zonal pricing was an option, as the Telegraph reported. But he was denying that he might implement a change that would put prices up in parts of the country.
Miliband said zonal pricing was an option when the last government started the process of considering electricity market reform.
Asked what factors Miliband would consider when deciding whether or not to change the way the electricity market operates, he replied:
My test of any reform – I’m not going to get into the detail now – is will it cut bills and will it do it across the country in a fair way.
I’m not in favour of a post code lottery on these on bills.
Actually, it’s already the case that different parts of the country to pay different amounts for bills.
But what I do not want to do is to make that situation worse, or somehow jack up bills in one part of the country in favour of another.
I will post more from his interviews soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales before it sets off on a voyage to the Indo-Pacific. He will be speaking to broadcasters.
9.05am: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, speaks at the opening of a two-day energy security summit in London.
9.30am: The Office for National Statistics publishes crime figures for England and Wales in 2024.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference in Dover.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Morning: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is campaigning in Warwickshire.
Afternoon (UK time): Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is giving interviews in Washington to US broadcasters, including Fox News.
3pm: Starmer is meeting Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, for talks in No 10.
Afternoon: Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, is on a campaign visit in the East Midlands.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
