🔌 Why Our Bills Will Keep Rising – The Hidden Cost of Renewables

Britain already pays the highest household energy bills in Europe.[^1]

Families are struggling, businesses are closing, and standing charges have risen by over 500% since 2008.[^2]And yet, the government’s energy regulators , the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) , are demanding more. Their Net Zero pathway requires nothing less than a complete rewiring of Britain’s electricity grid, at a cost that dwarfs anything ever attempted in peacetime.The headlines say £80 billion. The reality? £200 billion+ by 2031.> “£80bn is spin. £200bn is the truth , and you’ll pay for it through higher bills.”

💥 £200bn for Wires, Not Power

Ofgem’s draft settlement under RIIO-3 promises £80bn for transmission reinforcements (2026–2031). But National Grid itself has warned this is nowhere near enough, stating investment must rise by two and a half times to meet Net Zero commitments.[^3]That puts the real bill at well over £200bn by 2031 , money that comes directly from your bills.

💸 The Cost to Consumers

So what does £200bn mean for you?Spread across Britain’s 28 million households, that equals £7,000 per home.It won’t appear as a single invoice , it will be buried in your standing charges and unit rates for decades.Standing charges have already soared more than 500% since 2008, and will double again by 2031 as Ofgem loads costs onto consumers.[^2]Businesses will pay too, which means higher prices in shops, food, and services.This is why your bills don’t fall when wholesale gas prices ease. You are paying not just for electricity, but for the scaffolding required to wire up remote renewables.

🌬 Why Renewables Make Bills Higher

Renewables are not cheap when full system costs are counted.

They are:

Remote:

Offshore wind in the North Sea, solar farms on farmland , all far from where people live. That means billion-pound cables and substations.Intermittent: When the wind doesn’t blow, gas plants must stay on standby , paid for by you.Unreliable: When there’s too much wind, we pay wind farms to switch off , costing consumers £2bn+ annually in curtailment payments.[^4]This is why the UK is spending hundreds of billions not on power itself, but on rewiring the country around weather-dependent energy.

⚠ A Forecast Politicians Won’t Admit

By 2031, household bills will at least double again — not because of gas, but because of the ideological obsession with renewables enforced by the CCC and DESNZ.Reform UK has been forecasting this for months. We warned that the £80bn figure was a mirage, that the true costs of Net Zero would dwarf anything seen before. Now even National Grid is admitting it: £200bn is the baseline. Yet politicians of all parties remain silent.

✅ The Way Out

Britain doesn’t have to keep paying the highest energy costs in Europe. We could:Invest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and reliable gas, close to demand centres.Roll out rooftop solar film and micro-grids, cutting the need for massive transmission projects.Bring the grid back into public ownership, so shareholder profits don’t bleed out of the system.Until then, remember: your rising bills are not an accident. They are the deliberate result of Net Zero policies.

⚠ The Bottom Line

When your next bill lands, remember this:It’s not global markets. It’s not inflation. It’s the hidden cost of rewiring Britain around renewables.£80bn is spin. £200bn is reality. And you will pay the heavy price.

References

[^1]: Eurostat, Energy Price Statistics 2024 – UK households pay the highest electricity bills in Europe.

[^2]: Ofgem, Standing Charges: Historical Data, 2008–2024 – Daily standing charges have risen more than 500%.

[^3]: National Grid response to Ofgem RIIO-3 Draft Determinations (Aug 2025) – “Investment must rise 2.5× to meet decarbonisation targets.”

[^4]: Renewable curtailment figures, National Grid ESO, 2023–24 – Wind constraint payments exceeded £2bn annually.