O/T Trussed in Leader gone

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Inevitably though in the future green energy will have to be sold to consumers at a price they can afford whilst still maintaining profitability in order to invest .

Yes which could be done via a state owned energy company that Labour proposes. That will lower prices but as you say would need to be profitable to invest. If that " profit" isn't there the government would have to subsidise it via grants and aid. The money coming from taxation etc so Joe Public pays anyway. Plus it's worth remembering that those types of state aid for companies was a complete break of the rules when we were in the EU.

[animallittle3]

Yes which could be done via a state owned energy company that Labour proposes. That will lower prices but as you say would need to be profitable to invest. If that " profit" isn't there the government would have to subsidise it via grants and aid. The money coming from taxation etc so Joe Public pays anyway. Plus it's worth remembering that those types of state aid for companies was a complete break of the rules when we were in the EU.

Would a state owned energy company be a sure way to ensure prices were kept at a price consumers could afford whilst profit was invested as the subsidy ? .

We've had a go at this in other sectors in decades gone by and it didn't work out that way .

Isn't competition between suppliers the one sure way of keeping prices low ?

I'd be more for competition between suppliers but robust regulation personally , regulation around the amount of money paid out to shareholders and how much investment is actually coming out of the profit .

In other words the pie cut in to such a way everyone gets the benefit .

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

Would a state owned energy company be a sure way to ensure prices were kept at a price consumers could afford whilst profit was invested as the subsidy ? .

We've had a go at this in other sectors in decades gone by and it didn't work out that way .

Isn't competition between suppliers the one sure way of keeping prices low ?

I'd be more for competition between suppliers but robust regulation personally , regulation around the amount of money paid out to shareholders and how much investment is actually coming out of the profit .

In other words the pie cut in to such a way everyone gets the benefit .

No, I'm sceptical that a state owned energy company would work.

It would run for a short time successfully with the existing assets but the costs of R&D, infrastructure, inprovements etc would eventually kill it.