Soaring energy bills funding Ed Miliband’s net zero push risk triggering factory shutdowns and job losses, warns a new industry report.
Make UK, which represents 20,000 manufacturing firms, says that the cost of energy is destroying profits, sending many companies to the wall and risking an £85bn hit to the economy.
Stephen Phipson, the Make UK chief executive, said: “High energy costs are one of the biggest threats to the future of manufacturing in the UK.”
He added: “UK companies want to invest, innovate and decarbonise, but they cannot do so while electricity prices remain internationally uncompetitive.
“We are not asking for subsidy. We are asking for an energy system that allows them to compete … Without urgent action, we risk losing industrial capacity that will be extremely difficult to rebuild.”
According to the study, 90pc of manufacturers have seen sharp rises in energy bills since 2022 – and that 13pc of manufacturers fear further increases will destroy their business.
Since UK manufacturing adds about £650bn to the UK economy annually, the loss of that 13pc would cut that wealth generation by £85bn.
This would be a devastating blow, given that the share of GDP coming from manufacturing has shrunk from 17pc of GDP in 1990 to just 8pc now.
Make UK says a key cause of the UK’s high energy costs is the way Mr Miliband and his predecessors have loaded the cost of subsidies for renewables on to energy bills – known as policy costs.
These are used to give wind, solar and nuclear plants a guaranteed minimum price for the power they produce.
