LONDON — Britain should scrap its flagship target of cleaning up the power system by 2030 and focus instead on cutting energy costs, according to former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s think tank. 

In a new report published Thursday, The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) argued the government risked “getting the balance wrong” and blamed “decades of policy decisions” for Britain’s high electricity costs.

It called on the government to shift away from its totemic clean power target, and prioritize making electricity cheap to preserve support for the net zero agenda. “If the transition continues in a way that raises costs, weakens reliability and undermines growth, it will fail both politically and practically,” the report said. 

It is the second time the former prime minister, through the TBI, has weighed in on the government’s energy strategy. Earlier this year, Blair argued that global attempts to cut fossil fuel consumption are “doomed to fail” without a reset. 

The intervention comes as Energy Secretary Ed Miliband faces increasing pressure to cut energy costs for struggling households, especially after the Labour Party pledged to cut them by up to £300 during last summer’s general election.

Just last week, bosses of Britain’s largest energy suppliers warned MPs that the costs levied on bills — used to pay for grid upgrades and other green schemes — could continue to push up electricity bills, even if wholesale costs start to dip.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “This report rightly recognises that clean power is the right choice for this country. This Government’s clean power mission is exactly how we will deliver cheaper power and bring down bills for good.

“Our mission is relentlessly focused on delivering lower bills for the British people, to tackle the affordability crisis that has been driven by our dependence on fossil fuel markets.”

‘Recipe for public outrage’

Opposition parties have seized on high electricity costs to hammer the government over its decarbonization plans. Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho last week accused the government of creating a “recipe for public outrage” over its pledge to cut bills through the clean power plan.

The TBI defended the 2050 net zero target and the shift to clean electricity, but does not pinpoint a specific date to achieve the goal. “Circumstances have changed” since Labour set the 2030 target, it argued, while “pushing the system too quickly risks driving up costs and undermining confidence.” 

The TBI also proposed a string of reforms to government plans, including cutting some carbon taxes on gas and bringing back a controversial proposal to overhaul the electricity market by slicing the U.K.’s single national wholesale price into different “locational” prices.

The report’s authors reckon scrapping the carbon price support levy on gas would save the average household around £20 per year. 

The report also called for the government to give Britain’s National Energy System Operator (NESO) a mandate to “monitor net zero delivery for cost-effectiveness,” phase out subsidies for the controversial Drax biomass power plant, and implement “radical reform” to the planning regime. 

The 2030 target was “right for its time,” said the TBI’s Energy Policy Advisor Tone Langengen, who authored the report. “But circumstances have changed — the U.K. now needs more than a decarbonization plan, it needs a full-spectrum energy strategy built on growth, resilience and abundant clean electricity.”