{"id":785734,"date":"2026-09-28T22:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785734\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T22:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:42:10","slug":"burnham-promises-to-roll-back-privatisation-with-government-backed-grid-plan-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/785734\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham promises to roll back privatisation with government-backed grid plan | Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham will take his first major step to putting Britain\u2019s utility companies into public control when, at the Labour conference<\/a>, he announces a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.<\/p>\n

The prime minister will use his first speech as party leader to announce the creation of GB Grid, which will use money previously allocated to Great British Energy<\/a> to compete with privately owned companies such as National Grid.<\/p>\n

In a speech focusing heavily on undoing what the prime minister calls \u201c40 years of neoliberalism\u201d, he will promise greater public control of energy, water and housing.<\/p>\n

He is also set to lay out more details on how he will pay for his pledge to create a national care service, with senior ministers refusing to rule out scrapping the pensions triple lock after the next election to free funding.<\/p>\n

Government sources have suggested Burnham would signal his willingness to review the policy, but stop short of a pledge to scrap it altogether.<\/p>\n

Burnham will tell the conference on Tuesday: \u201cWe have a cost crisis. We all know it. The price of energy is crippling for businesses, and British bill payers pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an energy system where prices are dictated in markets miles away, while families and businesses here shoulder the costs. Once again, the British public has lost control.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will add: \u201cWithin 10 years, I want our energy costs to be in line with other nations in Europe. That means we must reform a broken energy market so it serves the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s first conference speech as leader and prime minister caps a remarkable turnaround in his political fortunes since this time last year, when he was criticised by many in the party for talking openly about his desire to replace Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

Having ousted Starmer from office, Burnham has spent much of his first few weeks promising a radical shift in tone and policy.<\/p>\n

He will tell the conference on Tuesday: \u201cWe can\u2019t carry on as we are. Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn\u2019t good enough and isn\u2019t going to get us where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the conference has been upbeat, Burnham will tell Labour<\/a> delegates he wanted to strike a serious tone with his speech and address some of the most intractable issues in British politics, such as social care, energy costs and youth inactivity.<\/p>\n

In the speech, the prime minister will say that he will resist \u201cthe usual tub-thumping conference speech \u2026 the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed\u201d.<\/p>\n

He will say \u201ceveryone wants less drift and more direction\u201d and that he will \u201canswer that call\u201d today. His offer \u2013 expected to contain a number of new policies \u2013 will be \u201ca more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n

The creation of GB Grid is his first significant step to challenging the power of private companies to run Britain\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The organisation will be given access to a pot of \u00a34bn that has already been allocated to the government-backed Great British Energy \u2013 although it is not expected to use all of that money.<\/p>\n

With businesses complaining about how long it takes to get a grid connection for new buildings and projects, GB Grid will use the funding to build more connections, as well as to maximise and speed up the rollout of renewables across the UK. It will be the first publicly owned player in electricity networks since privatisation.<\/p>\n

Officials said the government would also expand the rights of businesses to build their own connections, allowing them to tap GB Grid\u2019s funding to help pay for it \u2013 a move which they said helped speed up connections in Ireland by 11 months.<\/p>\n

\"EnergyEnergy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh on her plans for electricity grid | Politics Weekly<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Guardian\u2019s Politics Weekly podcast<\/a> on Monday, the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, said: \u201cOne of my frustrations with the last government is that they didn\u2019t recognise the need to invest in the system, and so we\u2019re having to do that at record pace over the course of the next decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

On social care, the prime minister will promise \u201can honest conversation\u201d with the public, saying: \u201cHope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

His promise to \u201crip the plaster off\u201d<\/a> when it comes to funding for the national care service has sparked speculation he could use the next Labour manifesto to scrap the pension triple lock and use the savings for social care instead.<\/p>\n

The triple lock \u2013 which guarantees the state pension will rise by the highest of inflation, earnings and 2.5% every year \u2013 is forecast to cost \u00a315.5bn by 2030, but so far no major party has remained committed to scrapping it.<\/p>\n

Speaking to ITV\u2019s Robert Peston on Monday, the chancellor, John Healey, repeatedly refused to commit to funding the triple lock beyond the next election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not telling you what the next manifesto will or won\u2019t contain \u2013 I can\u2019t do that,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you what the budget in a month\u2019s time is going to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister is also set to talk about youth unemployment ahead of a planned report by former minister Alan Milburn on why the number of unemployed young people is rising.<\/p>\n

While the government has already announced additional support for young people to get into work, ministers have said relatively little about whether they will reduce benefits for those who remain out of work in the long term.<\/p>\n

Answering calls on LBC Radio on Monday, Burnham said he would use his speech to outline \u201chow I think we should go forward in the next decade\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will require some significant changes, but I\u2019m doing it with the best of intentions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham will take his first major step to putting Britain\u2019s utility companies into public control when, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-785734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785734","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=785734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}