Policy paper

Great British Energy Act 2025: factsheet

Updated 3 September 2025

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Why have we legislated?

Our country faces huge challenges. More than 3 years on from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, every family and every business continues to pay the price for our energy insecurity. At the same time, we are confronted by the impacts of the climate crisis all around us, not as a future threat but a present reality.  

This government believes the only response to these challenges is to deliver a national sprint for homegrown clean energy. That is why one of the Prime Minister’s 5 driving missions is to make Britain a clean energy superpower, delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating to net zero.

We have taken a number of steps towards achieving our mission. Since July 2024, we have ended an effective ban on onshore wind, consented more nationally significant solar power than over the previous 14 years, and held a record-breaking renewables auction. We have set up the Clean Power 2030 Unit at the heart of government and, in December 2024, we published the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. This sets out a detailed plan for transitioning to an electricity system that produces at least 95% of Great Britain’s generation from clean sources.

And we have made significant progress on one of the government’s first steps for change by setting up Great British Energy: a publicly-owned and operationally independent company, headquartered in Aberdeen, supporting the delivery of the clean energy superpower mission.

Great British Energy will increase domestic clean energy production and public ownership of clean energy assets, build stronger UK supply chains, create jobs, and drive long-term growth of the local and community energy sector – ensuring the public benefits from the energy transition.

The Great British Energy Act 2025 (‘the Act’) received Royal Assent on 15 May 2025, and this is the next milestone in Great British Energy’s journey providing it with the statutory footing needed to deliver on our ambitions. Great British Energy can start developing clean energy projects and generating a return for working people.

How the Act will achieve this

The Act helps to establish Great British Energy as a publicly-owned and operationally independent energy company, setting out the objects as facilitating, encouraging, and participating in:

  • the production, distribution, storage, and supply of clean energy
  • the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from energy produced from fossil fuels
  • improvements in energy efficiency
  • measures for ensuring the security of the supply of energy
  • measures for ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its business or supply chains

These objects can include projects involving or benefitting local communities, recognising the important role community energy can have as we strive for clean power and net zero.

The Act gives the Secretary of State the ability to provide financial assistance to Great British Energy, enabling Great British Energy to start delivering benefits for the whole of the UK. Great British Energy and Great British Energy – Nuclear will invest more than £8.3 billion over the Parliament in homegrown clean power.

The Act also requires the Secretary of State to prepare a Statement of Strategic Priorities (SSP) for Great British Energy within six months of the date the Act came into force. This will be laid before Parliament.

The SSP will outline Great British Energy’s mission: to drive clean power deployment to boost energy independence, create jobs, and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers, and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy. It will set out the importance of its objectives in the context of its mission, providing the company with the strategic directions it needs to support the government’s clean energy superpower mission.

The Act also requires the Secretary of State to appoint an independent person to carry out reviews of the effectiveness of Great British Energy, published at no more than 5-year intervals post Royal Assent. The effectiveness of Great British Energy in delivering upon its duties set out in the Act and through the objectives set in the SSP are within scope of the review. 

When did the Act receive Royal Assent?

The Great British Energy Act received Royal Assent on 15 May 2025.

It completed its passage through the House of Commons on 29 October 2024 and through the House of Lords on 25 February 2025.

Exact dates and transcripts of each stage are available on the UK Parliament website [footnote 1].

What are the next steps for Great British Energy following Royal Assent?

The Act requires the Secretary of State to prepare an SSP for Great British Energy within 6 months of Royal Assent and lay it before Parliament. In response, Great British Energy will deliver a strategic plan which reflects both the priorities set out in the SSP and the objects section of the Act, taking forward its activities as an operationally independent company.

In due course, we will also establish the framework agreement that sets out the expectations and relationship between the government and Great British Energy to enable its independent operation with effective government oversight.

What is the territorial extent of the Act?

The Great British Energy Act applies to the whole of the UK.

Great British Energy is intended to benefit all 4 corners of our nation and will help ensure every part of the UK has a role to play in delivering energy independence for our country.  

In line with the Sewel Convention, legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, and the Northern Ireland Assembly has been granted, to the extent that provisions within the Act fall within their competence. The Act also requires the Secretary of State to gain the consent of the devolved governments on any aspects of the SSP for Great British Energy that are within devolved competence.

Where will Great British Energy derive its powers from?

Great British Energy is a government-owned company, underpinned by statute.

Subject to the requirements set out in the Act, Great British Energy will operate, as most other companies do, in accordance with the Companies Act 2006. The detail of its functions will be set out over time through the requirements under the Companies Act 2006.

Background

Great British Energy represents a new way of doing things and is at the heart of our clean energy superpower mission. Led by its own CEO, Great British Energy will be overseen by an independent fiduciary board, benefitting from industry-leading expertise and experience across its remit. Trade unions will also have a voice within Great British Energy.

Through its activities, which are set out below, Great British Energy will drive clean power deployment to create jobs, boost energy independence, and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy:

  • Project development and investment – Great British Energy will establish itself as an expert development partner and will develop, invest in, own, build and operate clean energy projects across the UK
  • Local and community energy – local power generation is an essential part of the UK’s energy generation, and increasing support through Great British Energy will ensure local communities continue to directly benefit from clean energy projects
  • Supply chains – Great British Energy will help drive the growth of domestic manufacturing and supply chains while taking the appropriate steps to act on any evidence of forced labour in its supply chains, becoming a sector leader in this space

Great British Energy will work in alignment with Great British Energy - Nuclear which will continue to bring the specialist capability and skills necessary to help deliver the government’s nuclear programme, including the Small Modular Reactor programme.

The Great British Energy Act 2025 is only one part of the wider package needed to deliver Great British Energy. We have made significant progress in setting up Great British Energy, including:

  • announcing Great British Energy’s first major partnership with The Crown Estate
  • publishing its Founding Statement [footnote 2]
  • selecting the start-up Chair, Juergen Maier; CEO, Dan McGrail; and 5 Non-Executive Directors: Frances O’Grady, Frank Mitchell, Kate Gilmartin, Dr. Nina Skorupska CBE FEI, and Valerie Todd CBE. Great British Energy’s start-up board met for the first time in Aberdeen in March 2025
  • setting out Great British Energy’s mandate as an expert developer and clarified the partnership between Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund
  • forming a collaborative agreement with the Scottish government on Great British Energy’s partnerships with Scottish public bodies
  • launching the company’s first major project which will see schools, hospitals, and communities across the UK benefitting from new rooftop solar and renewables schemes [footnote 3]
  • announcing a £1 billion fund for Great British Energy to invest in clean energy supply chains
  • launching the Great British Energy website [footnote 4]

Great British Energy’s headquarters are in Aberdeen, with Dan McGrail, the CEO, already based there. Aberdeen will be at the heart of the company’s plans to scale up clean homegrown power to boost energy independence, create skilled jobs across the UK and to support economic growth.

Two additional sites will open in Edinburgh and Glasgow so that Great British Energy can benefit from local skills and expertise.  

We will continue to drive forward this agenda over the next few months by recruiting further key roles into the organisation and undertaking a programme of stakeholder engagement to further develop our policy approach.

Stay updated by visiting GOV.UK.

Further information

  1. Great British Energy Act 2025. ↩

  2. Great British Energy founding statement. ↩

  3. Great British Energy to cut bills for hospitals and schools. ↩

  4. Great British Energy website. ↩

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