Category: The fight against the destruction of our farms and greenbelt

By Shane Oxer Something does not sit right. Britain is being asked to trust that its energy transition is being built in the public interest through electrification, heat pumps, smart tariffs, renewable investment, and digital grid reform. Yet when one company appears at almost every level of that transition, from supplying households to building infrastructure,…

By Shane Oxer — Campaigner for fairer and affordable energy For years, the British public has been promised an energy revolution.We were told that the transition to wind, solar, battery storage, and “smart flexibility” would deliver three things: cheaper bills, cleaner energy, and greater energy security. Politicians repeated it. Energy executives repeated it. Climate bodies…

The timing was politically perfect. As tensions in the Middle East once again pushed global energy markets into uncertainty, Ed Miliband stepped forward with a carefully crafted announcement: Britain, he declared, was embracing a solar revolution. More than 27,000 solar installations had reportedly been completed in a single month. National solar capacity had passed two…

A stark warning has emerged from the United States: the electricity grid, designed for a different era, is no longer capable of accommodating the scale and nature of modern demand. Artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centres have not merely increased electricity consumption , they have fundamentally altered it. In a single year, projected peak demand…

For years, the public has been told that Net Zero is both necessary and affordable. What has not been clearly set out is the full cost of how it is being delivered. Instead, what we are shown are individual policies: carbon capture, grid upgrades, renewable subsidies, infrastructure programmes. Each is presented in isolation. Each is…

There is a growing gap between what the public is being told about Net Zero, and what it is actually costing. Carbon capture is now being presented as essential infrastructure , a necessary step if Britain is to decarbonise heavy industry and meet its legal climate targets. Projects such as Peak Cluster, stretching from Derbyshire…

The Peak Cluster carbon capture project is being presented as a necessary and pragmatic response to the United Kingdom’s legally binding Net Zero obligations. Its stated purpose is straightforward: to capture carbon dioxide emissions from cement and lime production in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, transport them via pipeline across northern England, and store them beneath the…

Across Britain, something is happening in plain sight, yet it is rarely described for what it is. Rural communities are fighting individual battles , against pylons, solar farms, substations, battery storage sites and new developments imposed on agricultural land. Each campaign is local. Each is treated as a separate issue. Each is told the same…

Britain is undergoing a transformation in land use that is both extensive and largely unexamined. It is not being set out in a single national plan, nor presented as a unified policy. Instead, it is emerging through a combination of energy strategy, grid expansion, housing demand, and industrial development. Each element is justified individually, often…

If the expansion of Britain’s electricity grid is beginning to shape where development takes place, then the next question is not merely technical but economic. Public attention has understandably focused on the visible consequences of infrastructure: pylons crossing agricultural land, substations appearing on the edge of settlements, and the planning disputes that follow. Yet these…

Across England, a series of major infrastructure plans is beginning to reveal a pattern that has not yet been properly explained to the public. On their own, the proposals appear separate and technical: a new pylon route here, a substation upgrade there, a regional growth plan somewhere else. Each is presented as necessary, localised, and…

There is something quietly taking shape across parts of England that, at first glance, appears entirely routine. A new long-term development blueprint has emerged for the East Midlands , a 20-year plan setting out proposals for new towns, expanded villages, industrial zones and major infrastructure corridors across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. On its own, it looks…

Miliband’s Energy Strategy Collides with the Physical Limits of the Grid By Shane Oxer.   Campaigner for fairer and affordable energy The Failure of “Faster and Harder”Ed Miliband’s strategy assumes that if we accelerate deployment, the system will adapt. But the system is not political. It is physical.You cannot accelerate planning consent for pylons, land acquisition…

Ed Miliband wants the public to believe he has found a way to shield Britain from the next energy shock. The latest plan, briefed with the usual fanfare, is to “delink” electricity prices from gas while simultaneously considering a taxpayer-backed bailout for some of the poorest households struggling with energy debt. In political terms, the…

This Isn’t Just a Planning Decision , It’s a WarningSomething extraordinary has just happened in West Yorkshire.A hyperscale data centre , backed by Microsoft , is being pushed toward approval at Skelton Grange in Leeds.On the surface, it’s being sold as progress:JobsInvestmentDigital infrastructureBut buried inside the planning details is a reality that should concern every…

For the best part of two decades, Britain has been governed by an energy doctrine that mistook targets for strategy and aspiration for engineering. The public was promised a smooth green transition, lower bills, cleaner growth and modernised infrastructure. Instead, we have rising costs, mounting delays, growing public resentment and a power system buckling under…

By Shane Oxer.   Campaigner for fairer and affordable energy So why are they panicking now? Because the story they have told the public for years is no longer holding.For over a decade, the explanation was simple: high energy bills were the result of global forces. Wars. Gas prices. International markets. Events beyond anyone’s control. But…

Rachel Reeves wants credit for scrapping the Carbon Price Support levy. She should not get it. She is not abolishing it now. She is abolishing it in April 2028. That means British households and businesses are expected to endure two more years of a tax the Treasury now plainly accepts is no longer fit for…