𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Claire Coutinho, Shadow Energy Secretary, said: “Ed Miliband promised to cut people’s bills by £300 at the General Election.

“A year on, this reveals the true cost of his plans – bills going up for families across the country to pay for the massive expansion in the grid needed just to meet his net zero targets.

“His promise to cut bills by £300 is dead in the water. Families need a Government that will put cutting bills first.

“Kemi Badenoch and I have told the truth about what net zero by 2050 will cost this country. Until Labour are prepared to do the same, the British public will continue to pay the price.”

Ofgem said the cash would support the biggest expansion of Britain’s electricity grid since the 1960s.

Eighty projects will be funded, increasing the number of power lines, cables, and other technologies to be deployed as the country shifts towards cleaner power.

Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “Yet again we see that the result of the rush to fund net zero will be to push up energy bills for hard-working British people.

“Net zero is destroying UK manufacturing, threatens thousands of jobs and is making us all poorer. Only Reform will scrap net zero and make the UK gas independent again, using our own energy treasure under our feet.

“This will reduce prices and lower bills, ease the cost-of-living crisis and make everyone better off.”

Ofgem said bills would rise even higher without investment because of a surge in payments to wind farms to switch off at times when they overwhelm the grid.

Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, said: “Doing nothing is not an option and will cost consumers more – this is critical national infrastructure.

“The sooner we build the network we need, and invest to strengthen our resilience, the lower the cost for bill payers will be in the future.

“However, this can’t be done at any price, which is why we have built in cost controls and negotiated a fair deal for both investors and consumers. And we won’t hesitate to intervene if network companies don’t deliver on time and on budget.”