Market reforms could give Scots cheapest energy in Europe, says Octopus boss

Scotland could have the cheapest electricity in Europe if regional pricing was introduced, the boss of an energy firm has claimed.

Greg Jackson, founder and chief executive of Octopus Energy, said reforming the energy market could result in lower bills for people across all of the UK.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Jackson said: “If we had regional pricing in the UK for electricity, every region would be cheaper than it is now.

“Scotland would have the cheapest electricity in Europe.”

He made the claim as he said there needed to be “really rapid action” to improve grid connections for new energy projects.

Octopus Energy had been told it could not get a new solar farm it wanted to build in County Durham connected to the National Grid until 2037, Mr Jackson said.

He added: “That means waiting 13 years for us to be able to invest to create the jobs in building that and also for our citizens to get cheaper power.”

It is great we can look forward to being able to build stuff, but we also need to be able to connect it to the grid. And grid connections have ground to a halt in the UK

The energy boss said Labour’s pledge to deliver “cheaper, zero-carbon electricity” for the UK by 2030 was “perfectly possible” but would require “extremely rapid and focused action” from the new Government .

He welcomed actions by ministers to approve three huge new solar farms in England which together could generate 1.3 gigawatts of energy, powering the equivalent of 400,000 homes a year, as well as planning reforms which would see the de facto ban on onshore wind farms in England ending.

Mr Jackson said these showed Sir Keir Starmer’s Government had made a “really good start”.

But he added: “It is great we can look forward to being able to build stuff, but we also need to be able to connect it to the grid. And grid connections have ground to a halt in the UK.”