Nationalise big five energy firms to cut bills, say Greens

The Green Party is calling for the UK's big five energy suppliers to be nationalised and for prices to be returned to October 2021 levels.

This would cut average household costs by more than £2,000 a year, it says.

Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP want energy prices to be frozen, but the Greens argue the current level is already unaffordable.

Former Labour PM Gordon Brown has suggested some firms should be brought into temporary public ownership.

The average energy bill - set by the regulator Ofgem - is expected to increase from £1,971 a year to £3,582 in October, and to £4,266 in January 2023.

Green Party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer said: "We are seeing nationwide anxiety about the prospect of unpayable energy bills this winter.

"Other parties have only offered to fix energy prices at current levels, but we know these are already unaffordable. We would return energy prices to an affordable level.

"This experiment with an energy supply market has failed. Only the government can intervene at the scale required to avoid a catastrophe this winter."

The party wants the big five energy supply companies - British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON Next, OVO and Scottish Power - to be nationalised, as also proposed by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The Green Party says it would cost £37bn to return the price cap to where it was last October.

The party said this could be paid for by closing "loopholes" in the government's windfall tax on oil and gas firms, higher VAT revenues from higher prices across the rest of the economy, and increasing taxes on the "super rich".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has put forward a plan to fund a freeze in energy bills by backdating the windfall tax on oil and gas companies by three months, dropping the government's planned £400 energy rebate, and reducing inflation with lower energy bills.

Labour says this amounts to a £29bn package of support for households over six months.

But senior figures on the left of the party have called for it to go further, and back nationalisation of the energy industry.

The TUC, in its plan for nationalisation, has estimated the cost of buying out the companies' current shareholders would be around £2.9bn.

Sir Keir has ruled out nationalisation, arguing that compensating shareholders would be a waste of public money, and it would not bring inflation down, as he claims his plan would.

In an article for The Guardian, Gordon Brown called on Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who are vying to be the next prime minister, to halt further increases in the price cap.

The government should then negotiate price cuts with individual companies, with the threat of temporary nationalisation if they don't comply, he argues.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have both rejected nationalisation, as well as Sir Keir Starmer's plan to freeze energy prices.

Mr Sunak has promised a further £5bn on targeted payments to pensioners and the low-paid, as well as cutting VAT on domestic energy, if he becomes prime minister on 6 September.

Ms Truss has said her priority if she wins the Tory leadership race would be cutting taxes and "making sure we boost energy supply".

She has not ruled out further payments over the winter, but says her plan to temporarily ditch green levies and reverse April's National Insurance rise will save families hundreds of pounds.