May 21, 2026 · 50 min · 12 segments
**Conflict in the Middle East has pushed up energy prices in the UK. Even if the war ends soon, prices may not return to pre-war levels, and government could still face pressure to support…
Dieter HelmGuest
Peter LevellGuestHelen MillerHost
We are the only country I know of, of significance, which did have an industrial base, though we're losing it incredibly quickly, where we're trying to basically run the world on wind and solar intermittently, and try to get out of gas at the same time.
Even if the war ends soon, and let's all hope it does, prices are not guaranteed to return to their pre-war levels, and the government could still face calls to help households.
What's more, even before the crisis, the UK had some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world.
There seems to be a broad consensus that that's a problem, but there's debate about why electricity prices are high and what to do about it, and in particular, whether the issue reflects the cost of integrating renewables into the electricity grid or whether we simply haven't gone far enough in investing in wind and solar.
So today feels like a good moment to unpick where we get our energy from and how that's due to change as we move towards the net zero targets.
Will more wind and solar capacity make us less reliant on the price of fossil fuels? Will electricity become cheaper or more expensive? If the government wants to make electricity cheaper, either during the crisis or in the longer term, what could they do? Joining me to discuss all of that and more are Dieter Helm, who is professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, and has a very long history of working on energy and climate change, among many other things.
And importantly, he did a review for the government on the cost of energy back in 2017.
I'm also joined by Peter Lavelle, uh, who's deputy research director here at the IFS.
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We are the only country I know of, of significance, which did have an industrial base, though we're losing it incredibly quickly, where we're trying to basically run the world on wind and solar intermittently, and try to get out of gas at the same time.
Even if the war ends soon, and let's all hope it does, prices are not guaranteed to return to their pre-war levels, and the government could still face calls to help households.
What's more, even before the crisis, the UK had some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world.
There seems to be a broad consensus that that's a problem, but there's debate about why electricity prices are high and what to do about it, and in particular, whether the issue reflects the cost of integrating renewables into the electricity grid or whether we simply haven't gone far enough in investing in wind and solar.
So today feels like a good moment to unpick where we get our energy from and how that's due to change as we move towards the net zero targets.
Will more wind and solar capacity make us less reliant on the price of fossil fuels? Will electricity become cheaper or more expensive? If the government wants to make electricity cheaper, either during the crisis or in the longer term, what could they do? Joining me to discuss all of that and more are Dieter Helm, who is professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, and has a very long history of working on energy and climate change, among many other things.
And importantly, he did a review for the government on the cost of energy back in 2017.
I'm also joined by Peter Lavelle, uh, who's deputy research director here at the IFS.
