“The Energy Market Needs to be Nationalised.”

“The Energy Market Needs to be Nationalised.”

I bet that I wasn’t the only person who said, ‘Nationalise the Feckers’, when the news broke that SSE was raining energy prices by 8.2%.Yes the company that was fined £10.5M by OFGEM in April for ‘prolonged and excessive’ misselling had increase the energy prices so that the average fuel bill for their 10M customers in the UK rose by £106.  But don’t worry, they still had enough to pay their CEO a bonus of £1.8M last year.

One energy expert has said that this is ‘the final nail in the coffin ofaffordable energy’ while the citizen’s advice are expecting an ‘avalanche’ of energy rises from the Big Six.  The charity’s chief executive said that she hopes ‘other energy firms should anunderstanding of their customers’ financial situation but no raising their pricesthis winters.’ Sadly, there is no chance of that happening.

The conduct of the Big Six over the last decade has re-opened the debate over nationalisation of the energy market and we are now at the stage where I believe that it is essential that ‘public ownership’ should be seriously considered.

The Big 6 now have a monopoly over our energy market and have no issues over holding the country to ransom.  We saw the reaction when Ed Miliband spoke of prices freezes.  The Big 6 openly told the public that they would raise their prices to and (even more) inflated price to recoup future losses while also threatening ‘black outs’.  They believe that they have the right to bully, cajole and ignore our democratic systems.

Who doesn't dread their energy bills?

This needs to stop and never again must an essential asset of the UK be left to ‘market forces’ susceptible of being manipulated for profitable means.

Our energy infrastructure is in crisis. Lack of investment by the private sector has allowed an impeding energy crisis to come over the horizon.  To the shame of the Big 6, our energy rich country can no supply the energy demands of our nation.

The energy market is a complex market with different areas having different needs. TO ensure that all these area’s needs are met there needs to be leadership and direction for the long term strategy of the UK.  This can be done far more efficiently if the energy market was renationalised.  Rather than having an energy market that is geared towards profit making, we can have and energy market that is considerate to the customers’ needs and the needs to other stakeholders.

Over the last few years there has been a trend in Germany to ‘remunicipalise’ parts of the energy market.  Over 400 stadtwerke companies have been created since 2007. This new form of company, a public/public partnership between cities and regions has a constitution that prioritises the interests of the citizens over the interests of private enterprise.


We need to learn the lessons from the past and look at other successful nations to ensure that our energy market is commonly owned to benefit society as a whole and geared towards social needs not profitable needs.  We need a co-ordinated strategy to ensure that our energy market can provide sufficient energy for our nation’s need while tackling climate change and providing a real alternative to our carbon based economy.