There is the political foundation to achieve a long term framework for customers and investors

Today SSE is releasing its final set of financial results before the UK General Election. The energy market has quite understandably been under sustained political scrutiny in recent years as the UK seeks to find a way to ensure customers have stable, lower-carbon and affordable supplies of energy. As a company providing an essential service to homes and businesses across GB and Ireland, we accept and embrace this scrutiny.

The period since the 2010 election has seen a shift in the operating environment for SSE. We have seen the focus of UK energy policy move from the signing of the Climate Change Act and a high level of consensus about the need to focus on reducing carbon emissions, towards alleviating customers’ concerns about affordability and an increased consideration on ensuring that the UK has secure supplies of energy. 

One thing is for sure – people care about energy. And energy customers are also voters. So although we have not seen parties' manifestos yet, we expect the political debate about energy to continue. These range from the role of specific energy sources such as nuclear, renewables, shale gas and coal-fired power stations to how we can achieve greater transparency in how energy is bought and sold and the merits of a mandated price freeze.  When I speak to shareholders they often ask me how a company can make business plans in such a changeable political environment, as well as what SSE expects to happen in the coming years.

My answer is that whilst politics can be about exaggerating differences, policy can be a way of reconciling them.  Away from the rhetoric there is a high level of agreement across the parties that the objective of British energy policy is to deliver secure, affordable and low-carbon energy and the big secret is that the main Parties are not far away from each other on the vast majority of the big energy issues. One commentator wrote recently about a 'common manifesto' on which most politicians could agree; and, although it often goes unsaid, it certainly exists in energy.

There is agreement that we can't continue to load costs onto customers through their bills to fund energy investments without considering the impacts on those least able to pay; there is also agreement that we need to support lower-carbon technologies such as renewables and carbon capture and storage; and there is agreement that consumers want the energy market to be simpler to engage with and to be more transparent about its operations.

Against this background, SSE focuses its advocacy on areas of agreement, arguing strongly for policies and decisions that are fair to energy bill payers and to investors and support the delivery of secure and sustainable supplies of energy over the long term. We try to represent customer interests.

In SSE's own manifesto we focus on simple policies that are consistent with the objectives of all of the main parties. We call for more affordable energy by removing the cost of energy efficiency policies and financial rebates for the most vulnerable customers from bills and funding them via means-tested taxation; and we call for the smart meter roll-out to be reviewed independently to ensure it is being done in the best interests of our customers. At a time when the country needs companies like ours to commit to the kinds of investments that have a payback time of more than 20 years, we also call for long-term certainty in energy policy, focusing on clear carbon pricing signals and an enduring capacity market.  We believe that these policies can help to meet the shared objectives of British energy policy - and could be delivered with the support of all of the main parties in the next Parliament.

There is no doubt that the GB energy market is facing a challenging period and there is considerable uncertainty in a number of areas. However, I firmly believe that the General Election - along with the introduction of a market to remunerate provision of electricity generation capacity and the ongoing investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority - presents an opportunity to achieve a lasting settlement that ensures we have an energy market that works in the best interests of customers over the long term. 

We want a framework for 20 years, not just the lifetime of a Parliament, and we believe there is enough common ground amongst the parties to achieve this if we can work together for customers.