REMAKING THE SOUTH WEST
With an economy worth £64.4bn - almost double the size of Greater Manchester or the West Midlands- the South West has long been an underrated part of Britain’s economy.
Over 600,000 businesses are based here, with expertise in sectors as diverse as marine industries, health, nuclear, advanced engineering, tourism and food and drink production.
But opportunities aren’t what they once were. We need an economy that delivers well-paying jobs in our towns and communities. The places we are proud to call home. We need more new industries, new ideas and new infrastructure to seize that spirit of enterprise.
GETTING THE SOUTH WEST BACK TO WHAT IT'S GOOD AT
Britain Remade’s role is to act as a broker between our supporters in the South West and politicians in Westminster. Britain Remade will campaign for practical ideas to improve the South West, and make sure politicians are listening.
By investing in new clean sources of electricity and reigniting the South West's industry, we can have decent jobs, affordable housing, and clean, cheaper and secure energy.
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Actions to make Britain Energy secure by 2030
A playbook for energy security
From 2020 to 2022, international gas prices surged by 400%. This led to a 235% rise in household electricity bills. In other words, every £1 rise in international gas prices led to a 58p rise in the electricity bills paid by British families.
We recently published The Powerbook which includes 25 actions for energy security to stop this from happening in future.
The challenge
The price of solar, onshore wind, and offshore wind have fallen by 62%, 55%, and 75% in under a decade. The main obstacles to generating more energy from wind and solar now are a broken planning system and archaic regulation for grid connections.
It is not inevitable that it should take 12 years to build a new wind farm, 4 years to build a new solar farm, or 8 years to build a new transmission line to take energy to where it is most needed.
Let's get building
To make Britain energy secure, we will need to more than triple the amount of energy generated from offshore wind, connect two new nuclear power stations to the grid, and build more grid infrastructure in the next seven years than was built in the last 32. It will mean accelerating the development of technologies such as hydrogen, batteries, and small modular reactors.
The challenge is massive – it will require genuine political will, major investments in new technologies, and innovation from industry – but so is the reward.