Tory manifesto author urges ambitious renewables pledge

The Conservatives should have “very ambitious” commitments on renewable energy at the next general election, the co-author of the party’s 2019 poll winning manifesto has urged.

Rachel Wolf, a founding partner of the consultancy Public First, told a fringe meeting at this week’s Conservative Party Conference that the Conservatives would be unwise to shun renewables at the next election.

She added that Tory MPs often exaggerate the scale of opposition to renewable energy infrastructure in their constituencies.

She said: “It is true that MPs often over interpret opposition that’s noisy in that area and it isn’t backed up by the data.”

Wolf was supported by Sam Richards, who advised Boris Johnson on environmental issues when he was prime minister and has subsequently founded the pro-growth campaign Remade Britain.

He said: “Unfortunately, lots of Conservative MPs often misread the views of their electorate on this issue and assume that onshore wind is much less popular than it actually is.”

Pressed on how the Conservatives should handle renewable energy when they write their manifesto for the next general election, which must be held by January 2024, Wolf said: “I would definitely have very ambitious promises on renewable energy in terms of energy security and bills policy. Broadly you can promise people lower bills and greater energy security.”

Promoting the development of renewable energy also offered a way of countering public concerns that Britain is broken, she said: “People think that fundamentally nothing works at the moment, nothing can get built and there is no progress.

“In that situation, it is really important that you can demonstrate that you can get some stuff built. Given that renewable energy is in fact really very popular, of all the planning reforms you can do that will gain some support and demonstrate things can built.”

And Wolf said the environment is one of the areas that the Conservatives should focus on as an area where there had been “some degree of consistent policy over time” and you have to be able to carry on with it.

At a separate meeting, the Conservative party’s former head of polling said the government must have “consistent” messages on issues.

Tom Lubbock, who is a founding partner of polling company JL Partners, said: “You have to take the public with you. And to do that you have to educate, you have to teach, you have to be persistent, and you have to be consistent.

“You have to have a consistent message and one that’s designed to take the public with you. If you do that, if you don’t spring surprises on people, then the local picture will align with that national picture where people are overwhelmingly demanding renewable, secure energy that is not coming from abroad.

He was speaking in the wake of prime minister Rishi Sunak’s recent volte-face on net zero policy when he watered down a series of commitments in areas such as electric vehicles and energy efficiency.

Click here to read Utility Week’s analysis of Sunak’s net zero announcement.