The energy transition, mispriced

The price cap for January is set in November and, on where gas is now, it could go up by more than 20%. Freezing it would cost about £10bn. Lower inflation would hand roughly £7bn of that straight back through the index-linked debt book.

The forecasters said the Gulf war would send UK inflation past 4%. It fell. Now the same people say we have entered a new inflationary age. The data says the opposite.

Britain refines 30% of the jet fuel and 49% of the diesel it uses, from four refineries left of the 18 that were operational in the 1970s. On 1 January 2027 the licence that lets us import fuel made from Russian crude expires. The volumes are small but that is not the point.

The UK has announced $59 billion of data centre investment since 2023, and the National Grid cannot power it. 140 data centres are sitting in the connection queue asking for 50GW; the UK's peak demand this year was 45GW. In this episode of Noise Cancelling, Jon explains how the grid connection queue actually works, and Neil Woodford explains why he believes this is an energy policy failure decades in the making.

Ed Miliband called new North Sea drilling "climate vandalism". Now, with the chancellorship under Andy Burnham in sight, he is reported to be ready to wave the Jackdaw gas field through. What the U-turn reveals about the policy that gave Britain the dearest industrial electricity in the developed world.

UK prices have split cleanly in two since 2000. Heavily regulated goods and services have skyrocketed while competitive markets have dropped in price. Can the explanation really be that simple?

The UK has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world. British factories pay four times more than American ones. And Britain just banned exploration in the same North Sea basin where Norway is actively drilling.

The Epstein saga rumbles on, AI is quietly reshaping the US labour market, and British Gas says your electricity bill in 2030 will be worse than during the Ukraine crisis. Another week of noise — here's what actually matters.

Neil and Jon catch up to dissect the week’s biggest market stories — from stronger-than-expected UK GDP figures and growing pressure for US rate cuts, to DeepSeek’s AI training challenges, Harbour Energy’s North Sea retreat, and why UK wind farms are being paid not to produce nearly 40% of the time.

This week, Trump was back in the spotlight with another round of tariff announcements — but markets barely blinked. Meanwhile, the OBR delivered another doomsday forecast, and I took a closer look at the Financial Stability Report. On the corporate side, Wuxi impressed, Zigup made solid progress, and renewable energy stocks rallied on policy clarity. Plenty going on beneath the surface, as always.

Examining the UK’s new industrial energy policy and questioning whether the government is finally facing up to the hidden costs of its net-zero ambitions.

In last week’s blog, I wrote about the real drivers of high electricity prices in the UK. Contrary to the official line, it isn’t all about imported gas. The real story lies in the cost of the energy transition — and the vast subsidies and market distortions that come with it.

UK energy bills are soaring—but not for the reasons ministers claim. I dig into the data and uncover the real economic costs of our dash to net zero.

Neil takes a critical look at the economic policies of the Labour government since their election victory. He argues their agenda—particularly on energy, taxation, and expanding state control—is making economic growth harder, not easier.

The government needs to be honest about the real costs of its decisions. It’s possible to balance defence, energy, and climate priorities without undermining economic growth—but only if we stop pretending trade-offs don’t exist.

Jaguar’s bold rebrand and shift to an all-electric lineup by 2026 have sparked intrigue and criticism. European carmakers are racing to adapt to EVs, fierce competition, and shifting customer attitudes.