John Swinney vows SNP will cut energy bills by one third with independence
The First Minister’s pledge has not yet been backed up by any figures on how bills would be cut by one third.
John Swinney has claimed Scots could get one third off their energy bills with Scottish independence amid concerns over a lack of figures.
An independent Scotland could decouple electricity and gas prices, an SNP policy document has claimed, opening the door for lower wholesale power prices for Scots.
The SNP leader used his first keynote policy speech ahead of May’s Holyrood election to push the case for independence - claiming that Scots could better reap the benefits of the energy transition, including vast cuts to electricity bills.
The Labour UK government came to power 18 months ago with a pledge to cut energy bills by up to £300.
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The party’s manifesto before the UK general election stated that “we will save families hundreds of pounds on their bills, not just in the short term, but for good”.
But energy bills have gone up since Labour came to power, and are expected to do so again in April, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcing £150 will come off bill by scrapping a home insulation policy in her Budget last month.
Mr Swinney has now launched a policy paper on how an independent Scotland could cut energy bills alongside a short film which stressed “it’s Scotland’s energy” in a throwback to SNP past campaigns over “Scotland’s oil”
Speaking at the Glasgow Science Centre, the SNP leader pointed to the North Sea oil and gas legacy, claiming Scotland had been left “with the economic scraps from the Westminster table”.
He added: “We may have missed out on the full benefit of our oil and gas bonanza, but with our vast, low-cost renewable energy resource, Scotland has a second chance to get it right.
“A second chance to repair the damage being done right now by a Westminster approach that serves London and the south-east, while happily sacrificing Scotland and our north-east.”
Mr Swinney insisted that “the full benefit of our energy wealth must be felt by the people of Scotland”, highlighting “the communities who have windfarms in their backyard, by households struggling to pay their bills and by businesses the length and breadth of our land with the potential to prosper and grow”.
He said: “By selling that low-cost electricity into other markets at a profit, by increasing storage capacity, including pump hydro storage, to end the folly of generators being paid not to produce electricity, and by removing unnecessary costs like the UK’s nuclear levy, we can deliver big benefits here in Scotland.
“That includes being able to lower household electricity bills by over one third.”
The SNP policy document states that a Scottish electricity market, a requirement of an independent Scotland joining the EU, would be able to “break the link that means higher gas prices more often than not determine the wholesale electricity price”.
Currently, the electricity wholesale price in the UK is determined by the cost of the last unit of power needed to meet demand, which is usually gas - artificially keeping electricity prices high despite renewables costing much less to generate than fossil fuels and nuclear.
The document states that while gas sets the UK electricity price around 85 per cent of the time, “for Scotland alone, that figure would be substantially lower”, which it claims would enable “even under the current marginal cost mechanism, significant wholesale price savings for Scottish consumers”.
But Mr Swinney’s report does not specify how his claim of cutting electricity bills by more than a third will be achieved or by when, particularly when there is no timescale for delivering independence with no route to separation made clear.
Pressed by journalists over how his vow to cut energy bills by more than one third will be achieved, Mr Swinney said the main drivers would be by “reducing the constraint payments” and by “removing the UK nuclear levy”.
He added: “We have got an abundance of supply and that should reduce price.”
Asked about the detail of his plan to cut bills, Mr Swinney was unable to set out how electricity bills could be cut by one third.
He said: “The measures that we’ve set out in the paper in our judgement, give us the confidence of being able to say to people we believe their energy bills could reduce by around a third because of the scale of those factors within the energy market.
“The arguments and the points are set out in the paper.”
Asked about voters who would prefer Mr Swinney’s government to focus on devolved issues, the First Minister insisted he was prioritising such issues, claiming Scotland was “seeing improvements in the performance of the National Health Service”, adding that “our education system is much strengthened”.
Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, said: “John Swinney is a man stuck in the past - talking about independence while I am looking forward and talking about fixing our NHS.
“John Swinney wants to talk about anything but his record, and anything but the big challenges facing people across Scotland.”
He added: “I’m interested in building an NHS fit for the future; he just wants to focus on the arguments of the past.
“John Swinney has no energy, no ideas, and he has run out of time. That’s why Scotland needs a change with a Scottish Labour government.”
Scottish Conservative deputy leader, Rachael Hamilton, said: “Scots will be scunnered that John Swinney is still pushing his independence obsession at every turn, when they just want him to move on.
“This latest speech just sums up why we must get rid of the SNP at next year’s Holyrood election. If we don't, the nationalists will spend another five years demanding an independence referendum to the further detriment of Scotland’s economy and public services.”
She added: “Our NHS is in the grip of a winter crisis, people are struggling with rising bills and Scotland’s education system is a shadow of its former self, but still John Swinney can only focus on his lifelong obsession with breaking up the United Kingdom.
“This is further proof that John Swinney will always prioritise giving nationalist diehards some red meat over the issues that really matter to Scots. After two decades of scandal and failure, the SNP’s time in office must end next May.”
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