Scotland to get state-owned energy firm in four years
●First Minister says new company to sell ‘as close to cost price as possible’
Nicola Sturgeon has unveiled plans to create a state-owned energy firm to drive down soaring energy costs for Scottish householders in a shift to the left for the SNP.
The new company, which will be set up by 2021, will allow low-income Scots to turn to a supplier only concerned with “securing the lowest price for customers”, the First Minister told delegates at her party’s conference in Glasgow.
The move will be seen as a bid to address fears among senior SNP strategists of a Labour revival in Scotland, and Scottish Labour interim leader Alex Rowley last night accused Ms Sturgeon of “passing off ” his party’s policies as her own.
The First Minister’s keynote speech focused on “acting and governing today” with a raft of domestic announcements on childcare, help for young carers, tackling period poverty and building social housing. She also said a second referendum on independence would be staged in the coming years and called on delegates to make the case with “conviction”.
The SNP had pledged to explore the option of a new publicly-owned, notfor-profit energy company during the campaign for last year’s Holyrood
election. Ms Sturgeon said yesterday: “Energy would be bought wholesale or generated here in Scotland – renewable, of course – and sold to customers as close to cost price as possible. No shareholders to worry about. No corporate bonuses to consider.
“It would give people – particularly those on low incomes - more choice and the option of a supplier whose only job is to secure the lowest price for consumers.”
A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon later said the new firm would supply electricity and gas. The “immediate focus” of the new firm would be serving customers in Scotland.
Last week, Theresa May said she would impose a price cap on the energy market to help millions of households struggling with rising prices, in a move that was also seen as a response to growing public appetite for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing agenda. Mr Corbyn has also set out plans to cap energy prices, with Labour also having backed a not-for-profit energy firm.
Responding to Ms Sturgeon’s speech, Mr Rowley said: “From a not-for-profit energy company to teacher training bursaries, action on period poverty and promises on public sector pay, this conference shows that it is Labour which is setting the policy agenda in Scotland.”
Emma Grant Mccolm, energy spokesperson for the Citizens Advice Scotland Consumer Futures Unit last night cautiously backed the announcement. “We would welcome any intervention that genuinely increases fairness for energy consumers,” she said.
Claire Mack, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said a state-ownedenergyfirmcould provide a “one-stop-shop” to accessing public funds.
The Scottish Government will spend £840 million a year by the end of this Scottish Parliament term to fund their “truly transformational” childcare policy. Ms Sturgeon said some parents still “struggle to find and fund the childcare they need to allow them to work”.
It will fund the implementation of a individual account style system which will see youngsters entitled to 30 hours a week – the equivalent of the primary school week free. It will apply to all three and four-year-olds as well as vulnerable two-year-olds.
Youngsters leaving care will be exempted from paying council tax to the age of 26, following on from the government’s review of the care system.
On the environment, Ms Sturgeon revealed the first “Low Emission Zone” to be set up by the Scottish Government will be in Glasgow.
The Scottish Government has granted permission to the people of Ulva, an island off the west coast of Mull, to bring their island into community ownership, the First Minister confirmed.
Restating her government’s pledge to deliver 50,000 more affordable homes over the parliament backed by £3 billion, Ms Sturgeon said councils would have to spend every penny of their share on new housing.
She said: “Let me make this clear to every council today. If you don’t use all of your allocation to deliver new housing, we will take back the balance and give it to one that can.”
To help the tourist industry in Scotland’s more remote areas, she announced a new £6 million fund to help provide the infrastructure needed.
“This conference shows that it is Labour which is setting the policy agenda in Scotland”
ALEX ROWLEY