At his first Labour conference as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham is reaching toward an old question that modern democracies have never quite resolved: who should own the infrastructure upon which collective life depends. By announcing Great British Grid — a publicly owned body to invest in and compete within Britain's electricity transmission market — Burnham is placing the state back into a sector long surrendered to private hands, at a moment when the country's aging grid must absorb £70 billion in new investment to carry renewable energy from remote shores to the homes and factories that need
Burnham launches Great British Grid to accelerate energy infrastructure
introduce competition to drive down costs and speed up delivery
Mark
So Burnham is essentially saying the private companies running the grid aren't doing the job fast enough?
Mimi
That's the diagnosis, yes. The backlog of projects waiting to connect has grown significantly, and delays are increasing. He's arguing that introducing a public competitor will force the pace.
Luke
But we should be clear: the three private companies will still own and manage most of the grid. This is competition at the margins, not a takeover.
Mark
How much money are we talking about here?
Mimi
Seventy billion pounds between 2025 and 2031—that's what Ofgem says is needed. It's four times the current rate of investment.
Luke
And where does Great British Grid's funding come from?
Mimi
Within the existing budget of GB Energy, the green investment company Labour set up last year. So it's not new money—it's a reallocation.
Mark
That seems like a lot of responsibility for money that's already been allocated elsewhere.
Mimi
It does raise questions about whether GB Energy's other priorities get squeezed. But Labour's argument is that faster grid connections unlock renewable energy projects, which serves the broader green agenda anyway.
Luke
The real test will be whether a public company can actually move faster than private ones. That's an operational claim, not just a policy claim, and we won't know if it works for years.
Mark
And then there's the pension question hanging over all of this.
Mimi
Right. The government needs to fund social care, and the triple lock is expensive. But touching pensions is politically explosive.
Luke
The Chancellor wouldn't even commit to keeping the triple lock in the next manifesto. That's a significant signal.
The Pulse
- Britain's electricity grid is buckling under the weight of a renewable energy transition it was never designed to handle, with a £70 billion investment gap and a growing backlog of projects stranded in connection queues.
- Burnham is using his first conference speech to plant a flag — Great British Grid is the most tangible expression yet of his campaign promise to return public control to essential utilities.
- Rather than a full nationalisation, the new body will compete alongside three existing private grid operators, a deliberate attempt to inject pressure into a market Labour says has grown complacent and costly.
- Funding is being carved from GB Energy's existing budget, meaning the ambition must be weighed against the fiscal tightrope of an October Budget already strained by rising borrowing costs.
- Looming over the conference hall is the unresolved question of the state pension triple lock — a potential casualty of Burnham's pledge to deliver free social care by 2030, and a political minefield that union leaders are already warning could prove fatal at the ballot box.
At his first Labour conference as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham is reaching toward an old question that modern democracies have never quite resolved: who should own the infrastructure upon which collective life depends. By announcing Great British Grid — a publicly owned body to invest in and compete within Britain's electricity transmission market — Burnham is placing the state back into a sector long surrendered to private hands, at a moment when the country's aging grid must absorb £70 billion in new investment to carry renewable energy from remote shores to the homes and factories that need it. The move is as much a statement of political identity as it is an engineering solution, arriving just weeks before a Budget that will force hard choices about what a government can promise and what it can afford.
Andy Burnham will use his first party conference speech as Labour leader to announce Great British Grid, a new publicly owned company designed to modernise Britain's electricity transmission network. The move represents his most concrete step yet toward the greater public control of utilities that defined his campaign for the Labour leadership.
The timing is driven by genuine infrastructure pressure. As Britain shifts from centralised fossil fuel generation to renewable sources scattered across remote and offshore locations, its aging grid requires an estimated £70 billion in investment between 2025 and 2031 — four times the current rate of spending. The National Audit Office has already flagged a worsening backlog of projects waiting to connect, and delays are mounting.
Great British Grid will not replace the three private companies that currently manage transmission infrastructure, but will compete alongside them for connection projects. Labour argues that introducing this competition will drive down costs — which Burnham describes as crippling for businesses — and accelerate delivery. The new body will also support firms seeking to finance their own grid connections, potentially co-investing in those projects. Funding will be drawn from within the existing budget of GB Energy, the public green investment company established last year and based in Aberdeen.
The announcement lands at a politically charged moment. An October Budget will test the government's fiscal limits, and speculation is intensifying over whether Burnham might signal a future retreat from the triple lock — the guarantee that state pensions rise each year by the highest of 2.5 percent, inflation, or wage growth. Freeing up that money would help fund his commitment to universal free social care in England, targeted for rollout by 2030. Downing Street has not confirmed any review, and ministers insist the manifesto commitment holds for this parliament, but Chancellor John Healey declined to guarantee the policy would appear in Labour's next election blueprint. The Unite union's Sharon Graham has already warned that abandoning the triple lock would be electoral suicide. Burnham's Liverpool speech must announce a bold vision for energy while carefully navigating the pension question that waits just beyond it.
Andy Burnham will use his first party conference speech as Labour leader to announce the creation of a new publicly owned company tasked with modernizing Britain's electricity grid. The body, to be called Great British Grid, represents the prime minister's most concrete move yet toward the greater public control of utilities that formed the centerpiece of his campaign for power over the summer.
The announcement comes at a moment when Britain's energy infrastructure faces mounting pressure. The shift from large centralized fossil fuel power stations to renewable energy sources scattered across remote locations—offshore windfarms chief among them—requires the country's aging transmission network to undergo extensive rewiring in the coming years. Ofgem, the energy regulator, estimates that £70 billion in investment will be needed between 2025 and 2031, a figure that represents a fourfold increase over current spending rates. Yet the National Audit Office warned earlier this month that the backlog of projects waiting to connect to the grid has grown significantly, while delays to those projects are also mounting.
Burnham will frame Great British Grid as a solution to what he describes as a cost crisis in energy that has become crippling for businesses. The new company will invest in and compete for transmission connection projects alongside the three private companies that currently own and manage the grid across Britain. By introducing competition into a market long dominated by private operators, Labour argues it can drive down costs and accelerate the pace at which new projects come online. The party also plans to make it easier for firms awaiting grid connection to finance their own infrastructure, with Great British Grid supporting and potentially co-investing in those projects.
Funding for the new body will come from within the existing budget of GB Energy, the public green investment company that Labour established last year and relocated to Aberdeen. The details of how Great British Grid will operate remain to be fully spelled out, but the broad intent is clear: to work alongside private sector partners and network companies to reform what Burnham will characterize as a broken energy market. In his speech on Tuesday afternoon in Liverpool, he is expected to say that the company will increase competition to drive down costs and speed up delivery, allowing businesses to connect faster and grow quicker.
The announcement arrives at a politically delicate moment. A Budget scheduled for late October will test the limits of the government's fiscal room to maneuver, particularly given recent increases in the cost of borrowing for the UK. Ahead of that Budget, speculation has intensified around whether Burnham might move to question the long-term sustainability of the triple lock—the policy under which state pension payments rise annually by the highest of 2.5 percent, inflation, or average wage rises. Such a move would free up future funding for Burnham's plans to provide free social care services to everyone in England, a commitment he intends to put before voters at the next general election, which must be held by August 2029 at the latest, with rollout of the new system targeted for 2030.
Downing Street has declined to confirm whether a review of the triple lock is under consideration, though ministers have reaffirmed that the party's manifesto commitment to keep the policy for the duration of this parliament remains intact. Chancellor John Healey, however, stopped short of guaranteeing that the promise would feature in Labour's blueprint for the next election, telling BBC Radio 5 Live that "the manifesto will be the manifesto at the time." Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, has already issued a warning that scrapping the triple lock would amount to electoral suicide. Burnham's speech will attempt to thread this needle—announcing a bold initiative on energy infrastructure while navigating the treacherous terrain of pension policy that lies ahead.
Notable Quotes
It will increase competition to drive down costs and speed up delivery so businesses can connect faster and grow quicker. This is what more public control can do.— Andy Burnham, expected remarks in conference speech
Scrapping the triple lock would be electoral suicide— Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite union
Want the full story?
Read the original at BBC News ↗