- UK businesses pay 45% more for electricity than the G7 average.
- Back the North Sea: grant new licences, introduce a stable tax regime for ten years, and approve Rosebank and Jackdaw as a priority.
- Keep the Climate Change Act, and give the 2050 target the roadmap it needs.
Ruth Davidson today launches The Price of Power: An Energy Plan for Growth, a plan from Prosper UK, the centre-right movement, to reduce the price of electricity without abandoning the UK’s climate commitments.
The paper finds that the climate target is not what makes UK power expensive. It identifies three factors: a wholesale price set by imported gas, a grid not built to manage renewables, and retired subsidy schemes that still sit on electricity bills.
The paper recommends
- The clean power target should remain at 2035 rather than 2030, following the change made by the Labour government.
- Stand up for the North Sea oil industry by resuming licensing, replacing the Energy Profits Levy with a stable regime and approving Rosebank and Jackdaw.
- Keep the Climate Change Act and give the 2050 target a clear roadmap.
- Focus on renewables, nuclear and firm capacity, while making the grid fit for the energy system the UK is building.
Prosper UK shares the Conservative Party’s view that power is too expensive and that nuclear, firm capacity and the North Sea have been neglected. It agrees that the government’s 2050 target has no roadmap. It does not agree that the Climate Change Act should be scrapped. More in Common polling from June 2026 found that Conservative voters back existing net zero policies by 54% to 38%.
Ruth Davidson, Co-Chair of Prosper UK, said:
“I've spent the last few months talking to people who run factories, data centres and wind farms and they all say the same thing - they can't get plugged into the grid, they don't know what the rules will be in five years' time and they're paying more for electricity than anyone they compete against. Growth cannot be achieved in this way. Prosper UK’s recommendations are about growth as much as it's about energy. This starts with keeping the lights on.
The Conservative Party is right to say that nobody has ever written down how we get to 2050. But the answer to have a clear roadmap. Investors cannot cope with rules that change every time there's a new minister or change of government.
Our recommendations are not complicated. Focus on renewables because they're the cheapest power we can build. Nuclear because it works when the wind doesn't. And utilise gas from the North Sea for as long as we need it - and it is available for longer than some people like to admit.
The boats, engineers and companies leaving Aberdeen right now are exactly the resource that the offshore wind industry will need to thrive. Without decisive action on these issues the UK will never have affordable or home-grown power.”
Read the full report
Download Prosper UK’s report: The Price of Power: An Energy Plan for Growth.