Slow energy reform means UK is losing investment lead

The slow pace of important reforms in the UK’s energy market means the country is losing its lead in investment, according to a top analyst. Tony Ward, Head of Power […]

The slow pace of important reforms in the UK’s energy market means the country is losing its lead in investment, according to a top analyst.

Tony Ward, Head of Power and Utilities at EY told ELN the UK is no longer standing out and instead “drifting into the pack”.

The reform process we’ve been going through kicked off in the beginning of 2006, he said: “Utilities overseas and otherwise are still willing to invest but there are other opportunities abroad. At the moment we’re drifting into the international pack and we’ve lost the advantage we had a couple of years ago. We’ve not been moving quickly enough.”

This is worrying as we’ve built up a lot of momentum in recent times, said Mr Ward: “Over the last two, three years we’ve seen the highest levels of investment in building our energy infrastructure for more than a generation. Last year we saw something in the order of £11.5 billion of investment in pipes, wires, power stations and so on.”

Politicians need to create more “stability”, added the analyst: “It’s about having a period of stability, minimum changes to allow people to get used to the way things work and then to begin to invest with confidence against that framework.”

Tony Ward is speaking at Energy Live 2013 next Thursday.

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