The government needs to announce an energy policy in its Autumn statement later this month, to combat the uncertainty the sector is experiencing due to Brexit.
That is the only thing that will give clarity to investors in the industry, said former Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
Speaking to ELN at the Energy Live 2016 conference last week, Mr Davey blamed the government for the current situation the sector is facing.
He added: “We’ve had a lot of very bad decisions, some of them were actually irrational decisions hitting everything from renewables, to energy efficiency, to carbon capture and storage but we are not having anything positive to even put in place so there’s lots of negative things they’re not doing anything positive.
“Now maybe, in the Autumn Statement later this month the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for BEIS Greg Clark, maybe they’ll come out with energy policy. I hope so because the country needs it. They’re crying out for clarity in policy so that we can get the investment they desperately need.”
Last week, the High Court ruled the decision to trigger Article 50 has to be voted on by parliament.
Andrew Buglass, Founder of Bouglass Energy Advisory, said the announcement could change investor’s confidence in two different ways.
He added: “It could be a positive in that actually investors start to see some of the details around what the government is actually planning, it could also be that process reveals out further uncertainties which will make investors even more nervous.”
Fellow panelist Mike Huggins, Director at Frontier Economics highlighted the increase in energy bills as a main consequence of Brexit.
He said: “The first effect of Brexit was on the economy. We’ve seen a big currency effect, we’ve seen a fall in GDP a likely fall in GDP, maybe that will lead to recession maybe it won’t. Those are both going to have big consequences for the energy sector, the currency effect is going to increase the cost of imports ant that’s going to watch straight to the energy bills.”
Keep an eye out for more stories and videos from the Energy Live 2016 conference over the coming days.
