GB Energy needs full £8.3bn of funding or it will disappoint, government told

GB Energy will need a portfolio of clean power more than twice the capacity of the world’s largest offshore windfarm, the thinktank says. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

The government risks “disappointing voters” hoping for cheaper energy bills in the next decade if it cuts the £8.3bn budget for GB Energy, a thinktank has warned.

Researchers at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that the publicly owned energy company – set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills – will need to be fully funded if it hopes to build enough clean energy projects to meet 5% of the country’s electricity needs by the 2030s.