{"id":364491,"date":"2026-01-11T13:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/364491\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T13:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T13:41:10","slug":"the-staggering-cost-of-ed-milibands-net-zero-drive-finally-revealed-4-5-trillion-thats-more-than-the-uks-entire-gdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/364491\/","title":{"rendered":"The staggering cost of Ed Miliband’s Net Zero drive finally revealed: \u00a34.5 TRILLION… that’s more than the UK’s entire GDP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour’s ‘obsessive’ drive towards Net Zero could cost Britons a staggering \u00a34.5 trillion over the next 25 years, official estimates suggest.<\/p>\n

Critics said the extraordinary mounting costs for measures such as wind farms<\/a>, solar panels, green heating systems and upgrades to roads and railways are significantly higher than previous forecasts and could ‘bankrupt’ the economy.<\/p>\n

The figures, quietly published last month by the National Energy System Operator (NESO) \u2013 a Government quango responsible for Britain’s energy systems \u2013 includes an estimated \u00a3585 billion to be forked out by ordinary households to pay for the move away from energy\u2013guzzling boilers towards eco\u2013friendly heat pumps.<\/p>\n

And new wind farms and electricity pylons across the country would cost \u00a31 trillion, it estimates, while switching to electric vehicles and building more charging stations could add further costs of up to \u00a32.6 trillion.<\/p>\n

In total, NESO estimates Britain will need to spend \u00a3182 billion a year to reach its targets by 2050.<\/p>\n

Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, told The Mail on Sunday the figures were evidence that the policy should be scrapped.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘This confirms what I have always said \u2013 the Government’s obsession with Net stupid Zero will only succeed in bankrupting the country.<\/p>\n

‘A Reform government will scrap Net Zero immediately, cut energy bills and restore growth.’<\/p>\n

\"Climate <\/p>\n

Climate Change and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband. Labour’s ‘obsessive’ drive towards Net Zero could cost Britons a staggering \u00a34.5 trillion over the next 25 years, official estimates suggest<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A large windmill farm.\u00a0NESO estimates that\u00a0new wind farms and electricity pylons across the country would cost \u00a31 trillion<\/p>\n

Shadow Energy and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho added the figures highlight the ‘lies’ and fundamental hypocrisy of the Net Zero campaign.<\/p>\n

Range anxiety fears over ministers’ EVs\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Ministers are getting ‘range anxiety’ in their official electric vehicles (EVs), The Mail on Sunday can reveal.<\/p>\n

There are 42 fully electric Jaguar I\u2013Pace cars in the Government’s 108\u2013strong fleet of ministerial cars.<\/p>\n

But insiders have said that because of the cars’ weak battery life, they can’t ferry ministers from London to anywhere further than the Midlands.<\/p>\n

The Jaguars have a 250\u2013mile range when they roll off the factory floor, making a round trip beyond Birmingham almost impossible in them.<\/p>\n

And during cold snaps, performance can drop by 30\u201340 per cent \u2013 rendering them effectively useless for visits outside London.<\/p>\n

The Government is committed to having a 100 per cent zero\u2013emission fleet by next year, raising fears that ministerial visits across the country will be drastically curtailed.<\/p>\n

And according to Westminster insiders, access to ministerial cars is already a source of tension between colleagues.<\/p>\n

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‘For years, the public have been told the lie that Net Zero means cheaper energy,’ she said.<\/p>\n

‘This official data shows the truth \u2013 families and businesses will have to spend hundreds of billions of pounds upgrading their boilers, cars and infrastructure all while China is belching out a new coal power station every fortnight.<\/p>\n

‘Britain cannot afford to spend the next 25 years forcing people to adopt expensive technologies before they are ready just to make a Net Zero target.<\/p>\n

‘We should focus on making electricity cheap and let people buy products when they want to.’<\/p>\n

The potential multi\u2013trillion\u2013pound bill will pile further pressure on the Government to rethink its eco goals as fears mount that household bills will be pushed up to accommodate the green transition.<\/p>\n

Last month, reports emerged that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband was poised to splurge billions of pounds on household grants for solar power, batteries and heat pumps in a scramble to meet Labour’s promise to cut energy bills.<\/p>\n

He is expected to set out proposals next month to allocate up to \u00a313 billion over the next four years as part of the Government’s warm homes plan.<\/p>\n

But the Energy Secretary’s ploy suffered a blow earlier this month when government figures showed the UK increased the amount of electricity produced from fossil fuels last year \u2013 despite Miliband’s Net Zero push.<\/p>\n

It showed expanding renewable power alone would not be enough to meet Labour targets, sparking calls for more reliable forms of power such as nuclear and natural gas to be prioritised.<\/p>\n

Previous estimates from the UK’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, suggested the move to Net Zero would cost more than \u00a3800 billion over the next two decades \u2013 with the public purse shelling out \u00a330 billion a year.<\/p>\n

\"Shadow <\/p>\n

Shadow Energy and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho (pictured) added the figures highlight the ‘lies’ and fundamental hypocrisy of the Net Zero campaign<\/p>\n

\"Reform <\/p>\n

Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, told The Mail on Sunday the figures were evidence that the policy should be scrapped<\/p>\n

A NESO spokesman said the proposed spending totals would ensure that the proportion of the British economy designated to energy costs would decline by half \u2013 from 10 per cent today to between 5 and 6 per cent by 2050.<\/p>\n

‘This is despite a projected rise in energy demand, driven by population growth, increasing GDP and growing consumption from data centres,’ he said. ‘Our analysis shows we would be less exposed to energy price volatility under a de\u2013carbonised energy system.<\/p>\n

\u00a0PM’s local ‘gagged over rates U-turn’<\/p>\n

By Gabriel Millard-Clothier\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pineapple pub in London\u2019s Kentish Town is well known as Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s favourite haunt.<\/p>\n

But after Labour\u2019s humiliating U-turn on business rates, staff have been gagged from talking to the media. When approached by The Mail on Sunday, the pub manager said: \u2018The answer\u2019s no. We do not give interviews or comments; we are not allowed to.\u2019<\/p>\n

Speculating that Downing Street may have put political pressure on the pub, Tory Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said: \u2018Clearly, like pubs and businesses across the country, they haven\u2019t got a good word to say about the Prime Minister.\u2019<\/p>\n

The 19th Century pub was set to pay a staggering 500 per cent increase in its business rates bill, which would go from \u00a35,800 to \u00a329,100 in just three years.<\/p>\n

But after 1,000 pubs barred any Labour MPs from drinking in them, Labour signalled they would climb down on the Budget hike. Kemi Badenoch said it was \u2018too little too late\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour’s ‘obsessive’ drive towards Net Zero could cost Britons a staggering \u00a34.5 trillion over the next 25 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,97,1294,1634,50,70,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-364491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-labour","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-reform-uk","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}