In a challenging year for the north-east of Scotland, where concerns are mounting for the future of the oil and gas industry following the latest increase in windfall tax at the Budget this week, the prospect of Great British Energy being established in Aberdeen offers a shaft of light.

But what is GB Energy and, crucially, what difference will it make to our fuel bills?

The creation of GB Energy was a key manifesto pledge of the Labour Party prior to the General Election in July. It has been held up as a key driver of Labour’s clean energy mission to decarbonise the UK’s electricity production by 2030.

Following the sharp rise in energy prices which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, hopes have emerged that the development of the publicly owned company will play a major role in bringing down household bills.

However, GB Energy, which will be backed by £8.3 billion of public cash, will not be a conventional energy supplier. Instead, its role will be to harness investment in clean energy projects, to support the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy systems.


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The launch of GB was broadly welcomed when it was announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in September.

However, organisations such as Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, which have issued grave warnings about the impact of the windfall tax on the north-east economy, continue to emphasise the importance of transitioning gradually from fossil fuels to the energy systems of the future. And it insists, the skills built up in the North Sea over recent decades must be used and adapted to serve the development of the renewables the UK will need into the future.

Speaking at the time of the launch of GB Energy, AGCC chief executive Russell Borthwick declared that “we do not need to kill off one industry to grow another – in fact, the opposite is true, as one cannot exist without the other”.