Ed Miliband’s Great British Energy bill has been criticised as a “blank cheque” and for having “barely anything in it” as MPs debated the flagship policy in the Commons.
Energy security secretary introduced the legislation to the House of Commons yesterday for its second reading – making the case that creating a publicly owned company would be a “a crucial tool to bring down prices for our constituents”.
The UK Government has said it will back the Aberdeen-headquartered firm – which MPs and peers would have to grant Miliband the power to set up – with £8.3billion over the course of this Parliament.
“We have a simple proposition: if it’s right for the Danes, French, Norwegians, Swedes to own British energy assets, it’s right for the British people to do so as well,” he said.
Mr Miliband said GB Energy would “invest in and own clean energy projects”, such as floating offshore wind, work with the private sector and serve to “derisk” frontier technologies.
“We want the future to be made in Britain,” he said.
“Clean energy is the economic and industrial opportunity of the 21st century.”
But shadow energy security secretary Claire Coutinho criticised the bill, saying she feared MPs could sign off on “£8bn of taxpayers’ money for a completely blank cheque”.
The Conservative MP said: “This bill is four pages long. There’s barely anything in it… he’s provided no detail on how this bill could deliver any of his promises, let alone all of them.
“This is a four-page bill in which the secretary of state is asking for £8bn of taxpayers’ money while setting out no investment plan, no figures for the energy that will be produced, no numbers for the energy bill savings or carbon emission reductions, not even a timeline.”
You can read the Great British Energy Bill here.