With measly growth and energy among the most expensive in the developed world, Britain’s got bigger fish to fry than sealife conservation, writes Lawrence Newport

Imagine you’re the Chancellor, sitting in 11 Downing Street, the day before what has been billed by some as a make-or-break Budget not just for your career, but for the future fortunes of millions across the country. Now imagine a widely respected report just landed on your desk with 47 radical recommendations that, altogether, would almost certainly reduce every business and household’s energy bills. Would you accept all of those proposals, or not?

That’s the choice facing Rachel Reeves right now. Today, she has the opportunity to take the radical action necessary to begin to fulfil the government’s promise to ‘fix the foundations’ of our economy. Her decision will tell us whether she actually prioritises the British people, or if she is more interested in process and consensus in Whitehall’s corridors. If she accepts all of the Nuclear Regulatory Review’s suggestions, British energy can start to become cheap again. If she doesn’t, decline will continue: our energy will remain amongst the most expensive in the developed world, and we will all suffer from sky-high bills and a rising cost of living.

Since the summer, leaks, briefings and speculation – which in and of themselves are economically damaging – have fuelled debate in Westminster about tax rises, spending cuts and how best to fill the black........

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