Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first Labour conference speech as prime minister to announce Great British Grid, a new publicly owned body that will sit within Aberdeen-based Great British Energy and invest alongside private companies in electricity network infrastructure. The government says GB Grid will compete for transmission projects, speed up grid connections and remove barriers to industrial investment.
GB Grid will draw about £4 billion from Great British Energy’s £8.3 billion budget — itself a significant call, with £2.5 billion already committed to Great British Nuclear. It will be able to invest in and compete for competitively tendered transmission projects, marking the first publicly owned player in Britain’s electricity networks since privatisation. Alongside it, businesses and developers gain expanded rights to build their own connection infrastructure rather than waiting for network operators — a model the government says cut connection times by up to 11 months in Ireland.
The context is Ofgem’s estimate that £70 billion of grid investment is needed between 2025 and 2031, four times current spending rates, with connection queues delaying generation and industrial projects. Burnham set a ten-year ambition to bring British energy costs — roughly 26 percent above the EU average for households — into line with other European nations. The National Energy System Operator keeps system planning and Ofgem remains the regulator; GB Grid is designed to complement, not replace, existing institutions. The open question is whether £4 billion of public capital can move a £70 billion queue, or simply reprice the politics of who builds it.