Andy Burnham to propose public GB Grid body for electricity connections

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is expected to announce a publicly owned body called GB Grid to invest in Britain’s electricity connections when he addresses Labour’s conference on Tuesday. The proposal matters to businesses and energy developers waiting to connect projects to the network, but the reported plan has yet to show how much quicker those connections would become or what consumers would pay.

The Guardian and BBC reported the planned announcement ahead of Burnham’s first conference speech as Labour leader. Both describe a body that would invest in connection projects and compete alongside the privately owned companies that manage Britain’s transmission grid. The speech was still to come when those accounts were published, and the BBC said full details of GB Grid had yet to be set out.

How GB Grid would work

GB Grid would have access to money already allocated to Great British Energy, the government-backed energy company, according to the Guardian. The newspaper reported that the available pot is £4bn, while saying the new body is not expected to use all of it. That figure describes money it could draw on, rather than a confirmed GB Grid spending commitment or a schedule for investment.

The proposed body would build more electricity connections and support the rollout of renewable generation, the Guardian reported. Labour also wants firms awaiting a connection to have more scope to finance and build the required infrastructure themselves. The BBC said GB Grid could support and potentially co-invest in such projects, while the Guardian reported that businesses would be allowed to tap its funding to help pay for their own connections.

The pressure on connections

Grid access is already a significant problem for projects seeking to use or supply electricity. In a December 2025 review, regulator Ofgem said some developers were facing delays of years beyond their original connection offers. Major projects had reported losses running into tens of millions of pounds, while some schemes had faced costs inflated by as much as 200% or had been cancelled amid investment and supply-chain bottlenecks.

Ofgem said the queue of projects seeking connections had been cut by nearly two-thirds, yet a pipeline of approved projects remained unconnected. Its review described an imbalance in which developers bore substantial costs from delays while transmission companies faced no equivalent penalty. The regulator proposed stronger service standards, enforceable deadlines and tougher sanctions for network operators that fail to deliver.

Those existing regulatory proposals form part of the setting for Burnham’s plan. GB Grid, as described in the advance reports, would add a publicly owned investor and competitor to connection projects; it would not by itself settle the regulator’s questions about deadlines, network capacity and accountability. Whether the body can improve delivery will depend on details that have yet to be published and on projects actually reaching connection.

The energy-cost promise

Burnham is expected to present the grid plan as part of a wider ambition to bring UK energy costs into line with those in other European countries within 10 years. In remarks reported by the Guardian, he called energy prices ‘crippling for businesses’ and said British bill payers faced some of Europe’s highest energy costs. These are the prime minister’s assessment and target; the advance reports do not establish a quantified saving from GB Grid.

The stated route to a benefit is that investment and more ways to build connections would shorten waits for businesses and help renewable projects reach the grid sooner. That could address a constraint identified by Ofgem, but the reports provide no forecast showing how a faster connection would change a household’s energy bill. The proposed ten-year cost comparison is therefore a political goal rather than a demonstrated consequence of creating the body.

The Guardian described the announcement as Burnham’s first significant step toward greater public control of utilities. It reported that GB Grid would compete with existing private companies, including National Grid, rather than replace them. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast that the previous government had failed to recognise the need to invest in the system and that investment was now needed at record pace over the next decade.

What remains to be set out

The government has yet to spell out GB Grid’s governance, which connection projects it would pursue or when it would begin spending. The Guardian’s £4bn figure is an allocation the body could access, and the BBC reported that detailed arrangements were still outstanding. Those decisions will determine how the proposed public body works alongside network companies and businesses seeking to build their own links.

Burnham’s Tuesday speech is the next chance to clarify the plan. For now, the reported development is a commitment to propose a new participant in grid connections, backed by existing Great British Energy funds. Its effects on waiting times, renewable deployment and energy costs will remain open questions until the design is published and delivery can be assessed.