LONDON — When Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson appeared on “Desert Island Discs” in 2023 — one of the U.K.’s longest-running, most-loved BBC radio shows — his first song choice was a 1980s banger: Yazz’s “The Only Way Is Up.”
The optimism was on-brand for Jackson, one of the energy industry’s most polished lobbyists with half of Westminster on speed dial.
Octopus, the clean energy startup he founded in 2015, this year became the single largest provider to U.K. households. The multibillion-pound firm has its tentacles firmly around the corridors of power, selling politicians on its vision of homes aided by smart meters, solar panels and other green tech.
Within days of Labour’s sweeping general election victory in July, Jackson was in the Treasury, a poster boy for new Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ promise to hook clean energy ambitions to economic growth.
