Britain's Broken Energy System | Free the Power | IEA Podcast

Join Andy Mayer, IEA Chief Operating Officer, with Sean Ridley, energy and environment analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies and co-author of Power to the Markets, for a comprehensive breakdown of why Britain’s energy market has stopped functioning as a market at all. This episode of Free the Power explores how decades of subsidies, government targets, and intervention have eroded price signals to the point where costs are locked in for generations, and consumers are left footing the bill.Ridley traces the journey from the 2008 Climate Change Act through to Ed Miliband’s Clean Power 2030 plan, explaining how a drive to decarbonise the grid has produced a system built around capacity rather than price. The discussion unpacks the Contracts for Difference model, the Renewables Obligation, and the regulated asset base model for Sizewell C, revealing how each layer of policy has compounded costs for households. As one industry executive told a parliamentary committee, even if wholesale prices halved, bills would still rise due to the upward pressure of accumulated policy decisions.The conversation also examines Great British Energy, the government’s flagship national energy champion, questioning whether an £8 billion capitalisation can realistically compete with the likes of EDF or Orsted, and whether it risks becoming a return to 1970s-style nationalised industry. Ridley argues that Power Purchase Agreements, better price signals, and a genuine market role for small modular reactors offer a credible alternative path to cheap, reliable energy without the government picking winners.The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe