Wholesale market reform could deliver “permanent” social tariffs by scrapping existing “pile it high, sell it cheap” retail arrangements and enabling low income customers to benefit from cheaper, renewable electricity, Alan Whitehead has claimed. In a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, the shadow energy security minister outlined what he acknowledged is the opposition’s “not finalized” thinking on reforms to the retail and wholesale markets. If elected, an incoming Labour government’s “day one” priorities would include fixing the electricity grid and setting up its Great British Energy public company, he said.