Labour 'committed' to reducing energy bills for Scots but savings 'won't happen overnight'
EXCLUSIVE: Michael Shanks told the Record he was working "every single day" to lessen the financial burden of paying for domestic gas and electricity.
The UK Government remains "committed" to reducing energy bills for Scots as fast as it can, a senior MP has said.
Michael Shanks, the Energy Minister, told the Record he was working "every single day" to lessen the financial burden of paying for domestic gas and electricity supplies.
Keir Starmer pledged before last year's general election that household bills would fall by £300 by the end of the decade. But he has faced repeated criticism from the SNP and others over the stubbornly high cost of fuel.
And the UK Government has also faced a furious backlash over its decision to means-test the winter fuel payment for older people.
Shanks, the Scottish Labour MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, said reductions in fuel bills "wouldn't happen overnight" - but promised they were in the pipeline.
"Everything we're doing as a Government is to drive forward reductions in energy bills," he said. "We said at the election we would bring bills down and we're committed to doing that."
Shanks has been working closely with Ed Miliband, the UK Energy Secretary in the setting-up of Great British Energy, a key Labour manifesto commitment. The firm cleared its final parliamentary hurdle this week to become law.
The publicly-owned company will be headquartered in Aberdeen and is expected to create hundreds of jobs in Scotland.
GB Energy won't supply power directly to homes but will instead invest in new renewable technologies which will provide more sustainable energy sources in the long-term.
The UK is currently overly dependent on importing natural gas to fire its power stations, which increases the public's vulnerability to fluctuations in pricing and availability of supply.
Shanks said: "It's not going to happen overnight, but GB Energy plays a very important role in this. Every investment we make in renewable energy pushes gas off as the price-setter, reduces volatility, and brings bills down.
"This is a long-term project that avoids price spikes like the ones people have faced in the last few years.
"People's bills will start to come down. Obviously, we would love this to happen faster, but everything this Government is doing, every single day, is about moving as fast as we can to bring people's bills down."
Shanks continued: "GB Energy does two things. Yes, it is about driving forward investment in the clean power projects that secure bills in the long term.
"The second, really important thing is, the Labour Government believes in the question of ownership - the British public should own and benefit from the energy infrastructure we are building.
"In Scotland, what that means is investment in supply chains that deliver jobs and apprenticeships right across the country."
GB Energy has already contributed £4m to Scotland's Community Energy Generation Growth Fund.
This means towns and villages can now bid for cash to set up renewable energy generation projects after the £8m fund reopened this week.
'Great British Energy comes from a simple idea: British people should own and benefit from our own natural resources,' UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.
'We are giving people a stake in clean energy and delivering profits for the British people. As part of our Plan for Change, this will make us a clean energy superpower and help bring down energy bills for good.'
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