Debate contribution: Great British Energy Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 11 February 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

11 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Great British Energy Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4793365

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I have some concerns about the Great British Energy Bill, the company and the LCM. I also have concerns when I hear Members say that there is a lack of information about the LCM, which is pretty stark but a fair point to make. My concern is that Members seemingly have big questions but still want to vote for the LCM. That is a bit of a warning for me. It is very concerning, and it should scream out to other people. The £8·3 billion funding from the British Government to establish the energy company is a significant reduction from the £28 billion investment that the Labour Party initially announced before the Westminster election. There are also massive concerns about the fact that the company will not be a publicly owned energy supplier. It will use billions of pounds of public money to construct green infrastructure that private energy companies will then use. Publicly funded and paid-for infrastructure will be used by private companies to continue to fleece people, rip them off and increase prices once again. The private provision of energy means higher bills. Some people claim that it is about regulation or bureaucracy. No — it is privatisation and profiteering, which cause people's energy bills to go up, and that is what has been happening for at least the past four years. That point flies in the face of the just transition principles that the previous Assembly voted for and that current Executive parties supported. To make a general point that is connected to the LCM, we cannot rely on the goodwill or the greenwashing of multinational energy companies to reduce emissions and stop the climate chaos. They are the reason why we are in this mess in the first place. We also need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, and I implore the Minister to keep to that commitment. You cannot control or regulate what you do not own. There is a wider point about nationalising energy that the Member from Lagan Valley raised. It is a real concern that the Bill is not about publicly owned energy; it is about privatisation and allowing it to continue. The Bill, essentially, sets the groundwork for a company that will be allocated large sums of public money for a private industry with the objective of stimulating the private industry with a huge handout. Labour's description of the Great British Energy Bill is that it aims to:

"de-risk and unlock private sector investment"

and "accelerate private-sector development". Those are massive red flags for me, and the Minister should, at the very least, address them. There are serious questions about whether the LCM should be supported at all not just by me or the leader of the Opposition but, seemingly, by members of the Committee.

465 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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