When Knight goes, who will speak out?

So farewell to Angela Knight, the energy industry’s feisty champion, who announced her intention to stand down from the top job at Energy UK at the end of this year. After just two years in post, her departure comes out of the blue, but while she might have ruffled a few feathers among the members with her take-no-prisoners approach, it seems likely that the decision to go was hers alone.

Indeed, Knight is spoken of fondly by the industry, and the widely held opinion is that she will be a tough act to follow. She took the reins of Energy UK from David Porter shortly after the organisation’s formation, from an amalgamation of three trade bodies. In doing so, she was determined that Energy UK would have its own voice, rather than fall prey to the tendency of trade associations to be stifled by consensus.

In this, she succeeded. Energy UK is now firmly established in the industry and public consciousness, and has a strong voice of its own. Yet her two-year tenure, during which time the energy sector became Public Enemy Number One, must have been even more galling than Knight – who defended bankers in her previous role – could have envisaged. Perhaps the prospect of a year or more of forced inaction, while the CMA inquiry progresses, while enduring the continued vilification of energy companies, was just not that attractive.

Her departure leaves a vacuum at the top of the energy industry. Company bosses privately acknowledge the need for leadership, for influential individuals to stand up and deliver messages that may be unpalatable but are necessary, and in a language the public understands. But with the media and politicians in no mood to listen, with shareholders’ interests to consider, and the CMA hovering, they say they are unable to do so.

That’s debatable – but since no-one from the companies is willing to take the risk, we’ll never know whether those fears are justified or not. So the next chief executive of Energy UK must be carefully chosen: someone must stand up and speak for the industry.