Reeves speech had a giant hole: the sky-high cost of energy for industry | Nils Pratley

2026-03-18 - 18:19

Businesses say the chancellor’s response to the problem is too timid and more radical thinking is needed We’ll have closer trade relations with the EU, be the fastest adopters of AI in the G7, shift some tax revenues to the regions and squash the Nimbys if they stand in the way of growth “corridors”. It’s a plan. Or, at least, it’s a sketch of a plan since the EU will surely have its own ideas on what it wants from trade renegotiations. Still, Rachel Reeves’ big resetting speech this week set a direction. But then one comes to the elephant in the room: the sky-high cost of energy for UK industry. The fact the UK has some of the highest prices in the developed world would, you’d think, trouble more deeply a chancellor who blames the slowdown in UK productivity since the financial crisis on “anaemic levels of investment”. After all, those globe-trotting AI firms will be scrutinising electricity costs when choosing where to plant their power-hungry datacentres. Continue reading...