DUP's Paul Frew is seeking clarity on benefit to NI from government promises on GB Energy

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced the first major partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate “to unleash billions of investment in clean power”.

The government says the Great British Energy Bill will enable a company “owned by the British people, delivering for the British people, backed by £8.3 billion of new catalysing investment over this Parliament”.

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, said Great British Energy will make the UK a clean energy superpower. Working with the Northern Ireland Executive, I look forward to ensuring that the people of Northern Ireland benefit from clean power projects that can drive economic growth and deliver energy security”.

Northern Ireland is part of an all-Ireland energy market, meaning the potential benefit for consumers here is less clear-cut than it will be in the rest of the United Kingdom.

North Antrim DUP MLA Paul Frew has closely scrutinised the effectiveness Northern Ireland’s energy market at Stormont.

He told the News Letter: “I am going to be looking into how it will affect Northern Ireland first of all.

“If the Labour government are saying that it will benefit Northern Ireland – I would actually like to see how it will benefit Northern Ireland.

“I would like that to be the case, but I will withhold my judgement until I see how it actually interacts with the Integrated Single Electricity Market on the island of Ireland.

“I would like to see how there will be direct benefit to Northern Ireland from a GB energy bill. There might well be indirect advantages, but again I would like to tease that out and I’d like the government to illustrate how that will actually take place in practice”.

He said NI isn’t on the same footing as GB – and he hopes that the government’s plans don’t impact negatively on NI’s separate market.