The £1 Billion Left-Wing "Community Energy" Experiment That Will Fail

It didn't work before and it won't work now

The word ‘billion’ falls out of politicians’ mouths so easily these days it might just as well be punctuation. It’s as if politicians do not feel they have said anything if they have not committed some number of billions to some policy or other. This week, among other billions, one billion pounds were committed to something called “community energy”. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero proudly announced on Monday, the “biggest ever public investment in community energy will cut bills and create revenue for community centres, social clubs and places of worship”.

Granted, it’s not a hill of beans all by itself, but every time a politician commits £1 billion to something, it costs on average £35 per household. If there was such a thing as a “community” worthy of the term, surely the least that it would have within its means is to raise its own funds. What is a “community” if it is not defined by its capacity to act in such a way? Furthermore, what is a “community” if the £35 is to be taken as tax from households, to be given to the “community”? The word is uttered as glibly as ‘billion’ and ‘climate crisis’.

It was Ed Miliband who reveals the true depth of bonkers: “By giving local people the chance to take control of their energy, this Government is making a fundamental choice to transfer wealth and power back to communities across Britain.” What does “take control of their energy” even mean? What is the virtue, the benefit?

I do not want to “take control” of my energy. I want a utility company to provide wires to my house and supply power through them at a reasonable price. This ability was mastered, and in many cases pioneered, by earlier generations of British engineers and properly socialised bureaucrats, in a project that spanned the middle half of the 20th century. Under national and private ownership, current flowed throughout the grid (once it was built) at a few pennies per kilowatt hour, sustained by skilled technicians, managers committed to the country’s interests and the needs of millions of homes and businesses. It was a division of labour of which perhaps only earlier generations could see the benefits: those who grew up with it soon took it for granted.