Reform UK sets out plan to tax renewable energy

Reform UK would impose taxes on the renewable energy sector, under its plans to scrap the country’s net zero target, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice has said.

Tice argued net-zero policies were to blame for higher energy bills and deindustrialisation in the UK.

He said renewable energy was a “massive con” and promised Reform would recover money paid in subsidies to wind and solar companies.

“The British people are being ripped off by the renewables industry,” Tice told a news conference.

He suggested a “generation tax” and a “special corporation tax” would cover the costs of government funding for renewable energy.

“The British people need to know there is a direct link between the cost of all these subsidies to the vested interests in the renewables industry and your bills,” the Boston and Skegness MP said.

The party did not share further details about how the taxes would work in practice, including at what rate renewables would be taxed, or how much revenue would be raised.

Tice also announced plans to tax solar farms, and pass new laws to put energy cables underground rather than on pylons.

Reform’s deputy leader said “we will scrap net stupid zero” if the party won the next general election.

Currently, the rebranded Brexit Party has five MPs after winning 14% of the vote nationally in last year’s general election.

The party’s position on energy and net zero contrasts starkly with that of the Labour government, which wants to remove nearly all fossil fuels from UK electricity production by 2030.

Labour is expanding renewable energy and said in its election manifesto it would invest £8.3bn in Great British Energy, a state-owned clean energy company, over five years.

Governments worldwide are investing in renewables to meet international climate targets and lower carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050.

Electricity is increasingly generated from renewable energy in the UK, and the cost of renewable generation has significantly fallen in the past decade.

Labour promised to bring down household energy bills by “up to £300 by 2030” – and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has stood by the pledge.

But UK energy bills went up in January, and are expected to rise again in April.

The main reason for high energy prices in the UK has been an increase in the price of gas, which has been the largest source of fuel for years.

With energy costs on the up, and President Donald Trump promising to drill for more fossil fuels in the US, Reform UK has turned its focus on the cost of renewables.

Polling consistently suggests most people support net-zero policies and are concerned about the environment.

But standing alongside his deputy, Reform’s leader Nigel Farage said it was “irrelevant” whether he thought climate change was real.

He argued anything the UK did would be dwarfed by the scale of carbon emissions in other countries, such as China and India.

Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, said Reform UK’s plans “would cause household bills to skyrocket and pull the rug on energy firms”.

“We should be unleashing homegrown energy that can make us more energy secure and self-reliant, not blocking new supply and decimating investor confidence,” he said.

He added the problem was “not net zero, it is our reliance on expensive gas imports and excessive government intervention in energy markets”.