GB Energy boss unable to say if it will reduce bills by £300 by 2030 in blow to Labour Ed Miliband pledge

Dan McGrail said the firm was only “one actor” that “cannot solve a problem”.

He said GB Energy could be “complimentary” to the goal of reducing bills by “investing in local community projects” and “unlocking the energy value of public land”.

But he would not commit to the company reducing bills by £300 by 2030, which the UK government has pledged it would do.

Mr McGrail was speaking at the Scottish Affairs committee in the House of Commons on Wednesday morning.

When asked by Labour MP Kirsteen Sullivan if he was confident the promise could be delivered, Mr McGrail said: “As I say, it’s a much wider programme.

“Big parts of that are down to government policy, wider government policy and it’s not for me to comment on. What I can say is that GB Energy’s activities will work to have an impact in the areas that I’ve already outlined.”

When asked earlier by Bathgate and Linlithgow MP Ms Sullivan about how GB Energy would bring down bills for good, Mr McGrail replied: “Reducing bills, I think, is a national endeavour.

“I think from a technology perspective, a unit of electricity from a wind turbine, or a gas turbine, or a steam turbine, is more or less the same whether that’s installed in the UK or it’s in Germany or Poland. The technology is broadly the same.

“There are differences and there will be slight local factors, but overall the technologies and the mix of technologies is not really necessarily the core driver of the cost.

“The aspects that are driving the cost are wider, so we need to look at how we pay for networks, how we pay for wider initiatives within the industry in polices and market design questions.

“So one actor like GB Energy cannot solve a problem. What we can do is make sure that our investments are complimentary to the mission.

“So, as I said earlier, if we invest in local community energy projects, there is a direct benefit to those local communities. But one of the indirect benefits which is less talked about is that by building more production of energy close to consumption, we can reduce the amount of future investment that is required into our networks and our network reinforcement.

“And that will then have a benefit that is knocked on to consumers in the long run.

“The other example is ... I talked about unlocking the energy value of public land and again, in those examples, making sure that what you invest in on that public land is complimentary to the needs of the network and as the network develops.

“And that can help lower the cost of operating the network and the whole system and that will flow through to energy bill savings.”

A publicly-owned energy company, GB Energy was one of Labour’s big manifesto promises ahead of the election.

But it emerged soon after the idea was announced that it would be an “investment vehicle” rather than generating energy itself.

Energy bills have risen drastically in reason years, largely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The headquarters for Labour’s flagship GB Energy are being set up in Aberdeen.

Scottish Conservative MP for Gordon and Buchan Harriet Cross said: “It’s clear the people of the North East have been stabbed in the back on the 1,000 jobs promise by this Labour government.

“GB Energy was sold as the silver bullet to create jobs and cut energy bills, but this frank admission shows this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“The fact there are currently only nine permanent staff, the majority of whom are from other government departments, makes this Labour gimmick even more farcical.”