David Blackman

Another energy price shock could see one in eight manufacturers forced into closure, which underlines the urgency of wholesale market reform according to a new report. In a bid to protect the UK’s industrial basis by breaking the link between electricity and gas prices, the report calls for fundamental reform of the power market. This should include serious consideration of introducing a pay-as-bid model, under which electricity generators would be paid the amount they bid in the wholesale market.

On July 1, 2026, the United States declined to extend the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) in its current form during the treaty’s first...

Recent governments have been a lot better at setting targets for new homes than actually getting them built. The only year since World War Two when more than 300,000...

The new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) seeks to encourage development viability testing for sites during plan-making, rather than when applications are individually considered later on. This means more evidence-gathering work for councils during plan production and more meaningful early engagement for landowners and developers, experts predict.

Deepening concerns about affordability in the the energy market are giving EDF “pause for thought” about the company’s future investment in the UK, a director has warned. Citing EDF’s own analysis that bills will be higher in 2030 than today, Josh Buckland, strategy and policy director at EDF (UK), warned that affordability pressures may override government’s appetite for further investment in electricity.

The government is not intending to publish the rejected pathways for delivering the first Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP), Utility Week understands. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) submitted six trajectories that would underpin the SSEP to the energy secretary last month. However, sources have told Utility Week only the details of the chosen pathway will be revealed.

Great British Grid’s “very small” £4 billion budget should be focused on bulk buying high demand electricity network equipment and boosting skills, according to Quinbrook senior director Rosalind Smith-Maxwell. She told a panel at the Energy UK conference that its budget is only a fraction of the £60 billion that the government has estimated will be needed to deliver its 2030 clean power plan, so it is “not going to move the needle that much unless it's spent very wisely”.

By saying that the new National Planning Policy Framework creates a “universal tilt” in favour of appropriate development, the planning minister has not created a guarantee of permission, say experts. But he has raised the bar for councils who want to resist applications, they conclude.

Ministers must shield vulnerable households with heavy energy needs facing potentially higher bills due to its decision to scrap gas standing charges, charities and Energy UK have warned. John Healey has announced Wednesday, ahead of his first Budget as chancellor of the exchequer, that he will ask Ofgem to remove…

The government has just finished consulting on a series of draft templates for section 106 planning gain legal agreements for smaller and medium sites. While practitioners expect the tools once implemented to reduce time and costs, particularly for SME builders, there are questions over how far the government is prepared to go to legally enforce them.