CLEVER

The new Great British Energy will be given £8.3 bn of public money with a target of generating 20/30GW of electricity by 2030 (i.e. within this parliament). Much of this is via a tie up with. the Crown Estates (and a significant cash bonus for the Winsors!). The tie up will allow the new company to borrow money outside the fiscal restraints of the Treasury’s self-imposed limits. The company is modelled on EDF (although with a fraction of the financial power). It is hoped that the move will create another £60bn of investment by private companies. Personally I am disappointed at the lack of policy on insulation and household solar panels. However one step at a time! Ed Miliband seems prepared to become a champion of clean energy – let us hope other cabinet appointees show the same enthusiasm for their briefs – no more mass cabinet reshuffles (with subsequent pay offs!). Instead lets have professionals who understand the needs of their Department. In a school would Heads of Department be shuffled, say between, Home Economics, PE, Science, English and Geography? Of course not – but that is what has happened for the last 14 years with the incumberants only interested in their own careers.