October 20, 2025

GB Energy’s broken promises = the Union in miniature

Before the last general election, Labour’s headline promise to Scotland was a publicly owned energy company based in Scotland that would cut bills, create jobs, and supercharge renewables. A year later there are just 13 jobs in Aberdeen. Here we look at what was promised and how those promises are being broken.

It soon became apparent that GB Energy was not going to be a power company in the way that other independent countries like Norway and Iceland have, companies that create and distribute energy to citizens and businesses.

Labour argued that GB Energy would back innovative green energy projects with long term funding and it would bring down bills - lowering the domestic cap by £300. This has not happened. And the fact that UK standing charges are higher in Scotland, the weather colder and domestic gas not as available in rural areas means that Scots are twice as likely to suffer from fuel poverty than the UK average.

The GB Energy Promise

Labour’s own manifesto pitch for GB Energy talked up “thousands of projects” in onshore wind, solar and hydro.
It was going to be headquartered in Aberdeen and create well-paid skilled jobs that people transitioning out of oil and gas might be interested in.
They said at least 1,000 jobs would be created in Aberdeen.

The reality - Scotland gets the branding, England gets the cash

One year on - GB Energy employs 58 people and 42 of them are based in England.
There are just 13 jobs in Aberdeen.
There is only one job being advertised on the GB Energy website
Only one board member is based in Scotland
GB Energy’s chair, Jürgen Maier is based not in Aberdeen but Manchester.
Maier now admits it could take up to 20 years to create 1,000 jobs.
In the next five years 200–300 posts may be created (though probably not) but they will be admin/office jobs, not the skilled transition roles people were led to expect.

In short, you were lied to by the UK Government.

What Scotland needs in energy investment.

Scotland is rich in renewable potential - wind, solar, hydro, tidal. It is crying out for an energy investment structure that is focused on the needs of Scotland’s people, its economy, its environment and its potential.

It has become clear that GB Energy is not that - it's just smoke and mirrors trying to hide the fact that UK energy policy is damaging to Scotland's economy and to the wellbeing of the Scottish people.

For example, take the sorry tale of hydro. Scotland was once a world leader in hydro. But the fragmented and broken energy system Westminster created through privatisation has not delivered new hydro capacity. Despite the Scottish government awarding planning permission to several projects over the last decade nothing is getting built.

That’s because private companies need a market framework before they can invest. So Coire Glas, the biggest project is still swinging in the wind with not a shovel in the soil because of issues with the market framework.

Meanwhile, Norway has developed huge pumped storage hydro capacity which it uses as a cheap way to stabilise and top up their renewables-based network. It is set to become an anchor for the energy grid across Europe.

Scotland is crying out for major investment

in hydro
in the privatised national grid, which has been starved of investment,
in a transition to zonal pricing which will allow power to be utilised more efficiently, close to where it is made.

But GB Energy isn’t going to deliver any of that. Instead a quarter of the already unimpressive £8 billion allocated over the whole Parliamentary term has been taken for nuclear. Scotland has no need for nuclear power.

Producing energy from wind, solar, tidal and hydro is much cheaper and more sustainable. The issue facing Scotland is the weak and outdated distribution model and that is where Scotland needs investment.

£2.5bn out of GB Energy’s £8.3bn is being taken to bankroll Rolls-Royce small modular reactors (SMRs). That’s 30% of the entire fund swallowed by nuclear before a single Scottish wind or hydro project sees a penny.
Great British Nuclear was quietly renamed “Great British Energy Nuclear” the day before the Spending Review so that the government could claim it was still GB Energy spending.
That money for nuclear is on top of a £30 billion investment already announced - which would have been enough to transform Scotland’s energy distribution grid

What a surprise - Scotland has been shortchanged! The Union is handing back the broken crumbs of our own resources and telling us to be grateful.

What independence could deliver

Scots are getting tired of seeing our resources and energy siphoned off by the privatised energy system Westminster created. Far from being a solution to Scotland’s energy problems, GB Energy is a trick.

Price Scottish power to Scottish costs: move to zonal (locational) pricing so where it’s cheapest to generate, it’s cheapest to buy.
Invest in the grid, not just gigawatts: north-south reinforcement, island links, storage, and demand-shifting to stop paying to waste wind.
A real public generator: take stakes that keep value and jobs and prioritise producing cheap power - for example with pumped storage hydro
No nuclear surcharge: stop raiding Scotland-branded budgets to finance England-sited nuclear that arrives late and costs more.

Conclusion

Westminster promised a Scottish-based clean-power champion. Instead we got a cut-down investment arm whose revenue stream has already been diverted to feed nuclear projects that Scotland doesn't want or need.

Instead of well-paid skilled jobs for the green transition in Aberdeen, we get a shadow brand that has three-quarters of its staff in England. From 1,000 jobs to just 13. That’s the Union in miniature. Scotland deserves better.

Only with independence can we get the energy system we need to build prosperity at home and end Scotland's Energy Bill Rip-Off.