The dark future for renewables
Director's column
30 Jul 2025
Written By Andrew Montford
Is the penny starting to drop in Downing Street? Angela Rayner’s remarks about the possibility of social unrest over the summer suggest the Cabinet now understands all is not well. And she’s right to point out that economic insecurity and de-industrialisation are important contributory factors, alongside more prominent issues such as immigration.
But I am not sure that Labour has even begun to grasp the scale of the problem it faces. Getting the UK back to growth would be hard enough if we had US power prices. At the sky-high levels that have become the norm in the UK, the task looks almost impossible.
Industry is already starting to collapse under this burden. Jobs are being shed across the country. Meanwhile, energy suppliers are predicting that prices will continue to rise into 2026 and, with Ed Miliband signalling that he intends to stuff windfarm operators’ mouths with gold – your gold – in order to drive forward his Net Zero obsession, there is little or no hope of respite after that.
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/dark-future-renewables
