Blog Article

Launch of the UK Government’s Energy Paper analysing the potential impact of independence on Scotland’s consumer energy bills.

Date: 9th April 2014 | By: admin

Launching the UK Government’s Energy Paper analysing the potential impact of independence on Scotland’s energy, Edward Davey MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, made the positive case for the UK’s single energy market, showing how independence would increase people’s energy bills.

Speaking to a conference of energy industry stakeholders in Edinburgh, Edward Davey argued that because the single UK energy market is ten times the size of Scotland’s energy market, Scottish energy bills are lower. He listed a range of reasons, including the way investment in transmission and distribution networks are currently shared across the whole of the UK, to the way the subsidies for energy distribution in remote rural areas like the Scottish Highlands and Islands are currently paid for by all British consumers not just Scottish bill payers.

The UK Government’s analysis shows that energy bills in an independent Scotland would be higher by at least £38 a year and perhaps by up to £189, once the full cost of supporting renewables are included.