SEC Newgate UK, working with an alliance of businesses including energy generators, investors and energy users, ensured that a damaging change to how the UK’s energy market operated was prevented and future energy investment and jobs across the country were preserved. Our 'Fairer Energy Future' campaign succeeded against a well-funded high-profile campaign from businesses which stood to profit from a more complex energy retail system, alongside champions within whitehall, for whom the proposed change appeared expedient. In six months, SECNewgate built a campaign across digital, social and traditional media, building on direct public policy engagement, harnessing hard-hitting research to bring clarity to a complex policy dilemma. The UK Government’s Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) proposed a shift to zonal energy pricing in a move that threatened investment in renewable infrastructure, to undermine impact energy-intensive industries such as steel and glass, and worsen the cost-of-living crisis for consumers. Engagement on the policy detail with government by the Independent Renewable Energy Generators Group (IREGG) and others since 2022, had highlighted overwhelming evidence of the threat to inflate the costs of UK investment that zonal pricing would create. At the same time, high-profile proponents of zonal pricing, including a leading and much admired UK energy retailer, had invested a great deal of effort to secure significant influence on the debate, and their role meant that the main energy trade associations that would usually give insight to politicians on policy like this were conflicted into quiescence. Meanwhile, the champions of changing to zonal pricing dominated the airwaves with a simple but inaccurate claim underpinned by flawed modelling assumptions: that zonal pricing would bring down electricity bills. It was a compelling claim that the champions of zonal pricing distilled into punchy social media content, while the complexity of counterarguments put forward by businesses that could see the risks struggled to cut through the noise. In fact, zonal pricing risked undermining investment in renewable infrastructure and threatened to negatively impact industries like steel and glass as well as inflating bills for consumers grappling with a cost-of-living crisis. Meanwhile, the claim that zonal pricing would mean cheap power in zones of Britain with more regional supply as compared to regional demand failed to acknowledge that it would mean higher bills where demand exceeded supply. Our insights into the UK energy industry and policy landscape enabled SEC Newgate to conceive and design a campaign to complement engagement and to convene a coalition to jointly fund and launch a campaign. The campaign needed to operate at arm’s length from any single organisation, providing a unified voice for a broad coalition. Its aim was to cut through to elected decisionmakers who were not sufficiently sighted on risks or modelling assumptions used to recommend zonal pricing. The campaign was underpinned by a consumer survey of one thousand UK residents, which showed that when zonal pricing was explained, consumers rejected its introduction. The analysis demonstrated that: - Zonal pricing would increase wholesale prices for most UK consumers and was not viewed as “very fair” by 85% of respondents. That figure jumps to 90% amongst older people (65+), some of whom will have already been hit by a loss of their winter fuel payments. - 70% did not associate zonal pricing with lower energy bills. - Even in Scotland, 59% said they preferred non-zonal national pricing, despite the fact the region would likely benefit the most from the introduction of zonal pricing. Consequently, the Fairer Energy Future campaign was developed to provide a clear, unified identity. The campaign brought together renewable generators, energy intensive industries, businesses, and unions, amplifying its credibility and reach. This ensured the campaign was seen as representing a broad cross-section of the UK economy SEC Newgate UK led the strategy, policy, and campaign delivery, combining policy/sector expertise with creative campaign execution. The team included political strategists alongside campaign and research experts from SEC Newgate’s The Lab led by digital campaign guru Tom Flynn, ensuring a blend of industry knowledge and impactful communications. Without doubt the campaign played a mission-critical role in the UK’s future renewable energy provision and prevented a postcode lottery for bill payers. The campaign led to a positive announcement on 8 July, in which the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) scrapped plans to introduce zonal pricing. The abandonment of the zonal pricing plan prevented an estimated cost of £9.6bn to consumers, saved up to 8,000 jobs in Scotland alone and put £30bn of UK onshore wind investment back on the table. The decision restored confidence among energy generators to cont...