5,000 signatures reached
To: Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Cut Industrial Electricity Prices in the Budget
I’m Paul, and I work at a factory in Birmingham making components for vehicles.
High electricity prices are threatening our jobs — and holding the country back. We all know plants that have been forced to close. Friends, colleagues and many of us have lost work. It’s time to get British industry back on track.
Why is this important?
This November, Rachel Reeves has the chance to act in the Budget.
Our factories and plants are struggling with the highest industrial electricity bills in Europe.
Why are our bills so high?
- Wholesale privatisation of our energy system under the Tories means millions are extracted in profit each year.
- Other European countries have safeguards to shield their critical manufacturing sectors from soaring prices.
- The UK's electricity prices are currently set by the price of gas – a fuel that Putin can set the price of. When Putin invaded Ukraine and drove up gas prices, our electricity prices followed.
- Our industries were starved of investment and upgrades under the Tories, while bosses and investors extracted profits and dividends.
We’re not against climate action. It’s not even climate action that’s the problem!
But British industry can’t compete with imports – and workers carry the costs. That has to change.
What needs to happen now
What needs to happen now
We need bolder, faster action from Rachel Reeves and the Treasury.
The government recognised the problem and took first steps back in June as part of the Industrial Strategy and committed money to support industrial electricity prices.
But this mostly won’t kick in until 2027.
Our industry needs lower bills now. The support should be funded through general taxation. We need to delink our wholesale electricity prices from gas, so they’re not set by Putin or multinational oil & gas companies. And we need investment to upgrade and futureproof our industries.
If you work in industry — cars, steel, ceramics, logistics, construction, energy, or other manufacturing — and want to see long-term investment that protects our jobs, powers clean growth, and secures British industry for the future: sign this petition.
We’re industrial workers. We build, power, and make Britain.
We deserve a future — but we won’t get there without action now.