Richard Tice, Reform’s energy spokesman, has written to the chief executives of energy companies - Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Reform has told Britain’s biggest wind and solar developers it would scrap their green energy subsidies if it won power, in an attempt to sabotage Ed Miliband’s renewables expansion.

Richard Tice, the party’s energy spokesman, has written to the chief executives of SSE Renewables, Octopus Energy, Centrica, Equinor and others to give “formal notice” that a Reform government would tear up any deals struck with Mr Miliband.

Mr Tice said the company should treat any deals struck with Labour as “politically and commercially unsafe”, wording seemingly intended to undermine Mr Miliband’s bid to woo wind companies to build in Britain.

The move, backed by Nigel Farage, comes ahead of the crucial next round bids for subsidies to build new wind and solar farms in Britain – known as Allocation Round 7 (AR7).

Developers can apply for “contracts for difference” (CfDs) from the Government, which offer developers a guaranteed minimum price for their power for up to 20 years.

The subsidies are significant, totalling £1.8bn last year. The cost is added to consumer and business energy bills, which are amongst the world’s highest.

Such costs are set to rise sharply in the coming years, in line with the expansion of renewables and subsidy prices. Mr Miliband is racing to build wind farms as he seeks to decarbonise Britain’s power system by 2030.

‘Soaring energy bills’

In his letter, Mr Tice said the plan was imposing “intolerable costs on households and manufacturers”.

He added: “Allocation Round 7 will add billions of pounds of subsidies and other costs to UK energy bills as well as threatening the stability of the grid.

“There is no public mandate for the real-world consequences of this agenda, soaring energy bills, industrial decline, the imposition of intrusive infrastructure and the erosion of national energy security.

“Reform UK is now leading in the national opinion polls and a future government led by Nigel Farage is now more likely than not. If elected, or if we hold the balance of power, we will immediately reassess all net zero commitments, prioritising low cost, reliability and security of supply over spurious decarbonisation targets

“As a first step, we will seek to strike down all contracts signed under AR7. You should treat any long-term revenue streams as politically and commercially unsafe.”

Energy analyst Kathryn Porter, of Watt-Logic, said: “Reform is signalling that it will not honour these new contracts in the hope it will deter developers from entering the auctions and limit their legal recourse should Reform win the next general election and make good on its promise to cancel these new subsidies.”

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Adam Bell, of Stonehaven, an energy consultancy, said: “A commitment by Reform to tear up contracts signed by a previous government is a direct challenge to the rule of law and means that the cost to the government of any future contract will inflate hugely.

“If the government cannot be trusted to uphold a contract, then we will all pay, through our bills or through our taxes.”

Contracts for difference

Under AR7, which is expected to launch in the next few weeks, Mr Miliband will offer developers guaranteed minimum prices to build 12 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind and 12-14GW of onshore wind, the latter mostly in England. This roughly translates into 1,500 offshore turbines and 2,000 onshore.

Similar subsidy rounds are planned for 2026 and 2027.

Mr Miliband also wants 30GW of new solar panels, an amount that would cover about 650 sq km if it were all ground-mounted. Again, most of this will be built in England.

Renewable energy needs billions of pounds to build and connect to the grid and is generally not competitive without subsidies. That means investors will only commit to build wind, solar and other renewables if they have a guaranteed minimum price for the power generated – effectively a subsidy.

Mr Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was approached for comment as were the companies to which Reform sent its warning note.

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