LONDON — Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson has slammed the government’s decision to ditch zonal electricity pricing, accusing ministers of forcing higher energy bills onto consumers.
Zonal pricing, which would have replaced the U.K.’s single national wholesale electricity price with a series of local prices largely determined by supply and demand, was the “single biggest way” to drive down costs for consumers, Jackson said.
His comments, made after the government ditched the proposals early Thursday morning, expose friction between Downing Street and the U.K.’s largest energy retailer. Jackson and his colleagues have been a regular fixture in Whitehall for months, lobbying for zonal pricing.
“There’s a real risk now that we walked away from a plan that would bring bills down by £100 to £150 pounds a year as early as 2028, without any plan about what we’re going to do instead,” he said in a video on social media platform X.
