Burnham to Launch Great British Grid in First Conference Speech as Labour Leader

Andy Burnham will use his debut party conference address as Labour leader to announce the creation of a new publicly owned company tasked with investing in Britain's electricity grid, in what is being framed as the first major step toward greater public control of the country's utilities.

The prime minister is expected to tell activists gathered in Liverpool on Tuesday that the new body, to be called Great British Grid, will accelerate the process of connecting projects to the electricity network by injecting competition into a system currently dominated by three private owners. The announcement is intended to sit at the heart of a broader ambition to bring UK energy costs into line with those of other European nations within a decade.

According to the party, GB Grid will invest in and compete for transmission connection projects alongside the existing private network operators. It will also make it simpler for firms waiting in lengthy queues for grid access to finance connection infrastructure themselves, with the new body offering support and the possibility of co-investing in such projects.

Funding for the initiative is expected to be drawn from the existing budget of GB Energy, the public green investment company that Labour established last year and which now operates from a headquarters in Aberdeen. Full structural details of the new organisation have yet to be published, leaving questions about its governance, staffing and precise remit still to be answered.

Burnham is expected to present the creation of GB Grid as evidence of what greater public involvement in essential infrastructure can achieve, arguing that faster connections could help resolve a "cost crisis" in energy that has proven "crippling for businesses." He is expected to say the body will "work with the private sector and network companies" to "reform a broken energy market," adding that it will "increase competition to drive down costs and speed up delivery so businesses can connect faster and grow quicker."

The backdrop to the announcement is a transmission network widely acknowledged to be in need of extensive rewiring. Britain's electricity generation has shifted away from large fossil fuel stations toward more remote locations, particularly offshore wind farms, a transition that places new demands on an ageing grid built for a different era of power production.

The scale of the challenge is considerable. Energy regulator Ofgem has estimated that around £70bn of investment will be required in the grid between 2025 and 2031, a figure that would quadruple the current rate of spending. In a report earlier this month, the National Audit Office warned that both the number of projects waiting to connect to the grid and the delays they face had grown significantly, underscoring the pressure on the existing system.

Beyond energy, Burnham's speech is expected to address the funding question surrounding his recently announced plans for an NHS-style social care system for England. He has promised to set out how he intends to pay for the scheme, which he says should be put before voters at the next general election, legally required by August 2029 at the latest, with rollout targeted from 2030.

Speculation has mounted that the prime minister could signal a willingness to review the "triple lock" on state pensions as he seeks to free up future funding. The policy, which guarantees that payments rise annually by whichever is highest of 2.5%, inflation or average wage growth, is projected to add billions to pension costs as the UK population ages.

On Monday, Chancellor John Healey declined to guarantee that the commitment, which has appeared in every Labour manifesto since 2015, would be retained in the party's next election blueprint. "The manifesto will be the manifesto at the time, I'm not going to do that now," he told BBC Radio 5 Live, leaving the door open to a possible change of direction.

The speech comes ahead of a difficult Budget at the end of next month, with the government's fiscal room for manoeuvre narrowed by recent increases in the cost of UK borrowing. That constraint forms the backdrop to Burnham's promise of an "honest conversation" with voters about difficult subjects, set against the overall theme of "hope" that has defined the four-day gathering.

Burnham is expected to acknowledge the unusual character of his address, saying he initially wanted to deliver "the usual tub-thumping conference speech" but that "the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed." The remark signals a deliberate departure from conventional conference rhetoric, positioning the speech as a candid assessment of the challenges facing the country rather than a purely celebratory occasion.

The proposals place public ownership and control of critical infrastructure at the centre of Burnham's political pitch, a theme he emphasised during the summer as he sought the leadership. By tying the grid announcement to the cost pressures faced by businesses, the prime minister aims to connect his ideological argument for greater state involvement to the practical concerns of firms struggling with energy expenses and lengthy connection waits.

How quickly GB Grid could be established, and how effectively it could operate alongside private network companies, remains uncertain. The government has yet to explain how competition between a publicly funded body and established private operators would work in practice, nor how disputes over access and pricing would be resolved. Those details are likely to face scrutiny in the coming weeks.

For now, the announcement gives Burnham a concrete policy to present to party members and signals the direction of travel for a leadership defined by its stated ambition to extend public control over utilities. Whether it delivers the promised reduction in energy costs and acceleration in grid connections will depend on the details still to emerge and on the wider economic conditions shaping the upcoming Budget.