Nationalisation call by Meacher

A FUTURE Labour government must nationalise energy companies to stop people choosing between food and heat — and to ensure the lights are kept on, Oldham MP Michael Meacher has warned.

The Oldham West and Royton MP said current UK energy policy is a “colossal failure” and hasn’t delivered on its three objectives; cheap affordable energy, security of supply and the shift from carbon fuels to renewables.

He said: “Under the current privatised regime the UK is monumentally failing on all three counts. The most recent figures show the UK has the fourth-highest prices in the EU and studies over a number of years have concluded that UK electricity prices are consistently higher than they would have been without privatisation.

“The UK has some of the worst statistics in Europe for fuel poverty. What is most shocking of all is the number of UK pensioners who die from extreme cold every winter at a rate double that of Finland - despite the latter’s much colder winter climate.”

“Faced with these massive contradictions the only sensible way now to reset energy markets is through taking the energy companies back into public ownership and to regain strategic direction in the public interest in a key sector of the economy.”