The LibDems’ unserious energy manifesto

In the interests of even handedness, I thought it a good idea to take a look at the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto. It’s fair to say, however, that Ed Davey and his team fell well short of my (very low) expectations. Their plans are gloriously daft.

For example, the Spiked website has an article this week about botched household insulation, which has cost homeowners hundreds of millions of pounds. It seems, unfortunately, that Mr Davey has learned precisely nothing from this sorry history, announcing ‘an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme’ with lots of insulation and heat pumps. And if there is any doubt that this will be an unmitigated disaster, there is to be “a central role for local authorities” in delivery.

There is no indication of the cost on this, or any other element of the energy manifesto. However, but back in 2020, National Grid were proposing a 30-year household insulation programme at £10 billion per year. With the addition of the heat pumps and inflation, it’s therefore hard to see Mr Davey’s wheeze costing less than a quarter of a trillion pounds.

We have a housebuilding crisis on our hands too, which Mr Davey seems to want to make even worse, with a requirement that ‘all new homes and non-domestic buildings to be built to a zero-carbon standard’. More money, fewer homes. So the young will be renting rather than buying.

Except Mr Davey has plans there too, demanding a reintroduction of requirements for landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of their properties to EPC C or above by 2028.

Mr Davey has plans for the electricity system too, although it’s clear that these are based on an understanding of the issues that is, at best, very superficial. The LibDems, it seems, are going to set about ‘decoupling electricity prices from the wholesale gas price’. Speak and it will be done! Ofgem have been looking at this idea for several years and seem to have given up on the idea as infeasible.

Mr Davey also plans to close down the North Sea for good. He doesn’t put it quite like this, of course, but that is the effect that extending the windfall tax on oil and gas producers would have. It is also unclear whether he and his team have noticed that oil and gas prices have fallen precipitously in the last year, so there may be little by way of a windfall to tax any longer.

There is screeds of this stuff, which I won’t bother NZW readers with. I hope this short article has given you a flavour of how frivolous the LibDems’ plan is. They clearly have no interest in this area, and are just flying some kites that they think will deliver them votes.

We desperately need serious politicians who are interested in the energy field. It looks as though the LibDems have none.