The Politics of Power 

Simon Francis | 7th September 2026 | Comment, Economics and Finance
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

End Fuel Poverty Coalition coordinator Simon Francis examines the four stories politicians hear about electricity and gas, and argues that the fight over which story shapes the agenda is the real politics of energy.

For decades, debate on energy has been treated as a technical issue. Price caps, tariffs, wholesale costs, standing charges and more acronyms than there are windfarms. But how Britain powers and heats itself is now becoming a political debate about who pays, who profits and which direction the country should go in. The same basic facts about high energy costs can be told as a story about people suffering in cold damp homes, a story about rising bills, a story about profits, or a story about net zero and climate change.  The fight over which one dominates is becoming part of everyday politics. The hardest story is the one most easily forgotten by political point scoring. Behind every price cap change is a parent rationing how many hot meals they make, a pensioner frightened of putting the heating on, a child doing homework in a coat, a disabled person unable to charge their wheelchair or an asthmatic person struggling with mouldy conditions. Cold, damp homes are not a misfortune, they a...

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