Andy Burnham to Announce GB Grid and Public Control of Utilities at Labour Conference

Andy Burnham will take his first major step to putting Britain’s utility companies into public control when, at the Labour conference, he announces a new government-backed body to invest in the electricity grid.

The prime minister will use his first speech as party leader to announce the creation of GB Grid, which will use money previously allocated to Great British Energy to compete with privately owned companies such as National Grid.

In a speech focusing heavily on undoing what the prime minister calls “40 years of neoliberalism”, he will promise greater public control of energy, water and housing.

He is also set to lay out more details on how he will pay for his pledge to create a national care service, with senior ministers refusing to rule out scrapping the pensions triple lock after the next election to free funding.

Government sources have suggested Burnham would signal his willingness to review the policy, but stop short of a pledge to scrap it altogether.

Burnham will tell the conference on Tuesday: “We have a cost crisis. We all know it. The price of energy is crippling for businesses, and British bill payers pay some of the highest energy costs in Europe.

“We have an energy system where prices are dictated in markets miles away, while families and businesses here shoulder the costs. Once again, the British public has lost control.”

He will add: “Within 10 years, I want our energy costs to be in line with other nations in Europe. That means we must reform a broken energy market so it serves the public interest.”

Burnham’s first conference speech as leader and prime minister caps a remarkable turnaround in his political fortunes since this time last year, when he was criticised by many in the party for talking openly about his desire to replace Keir Starmer.

Having ousted Starmer from office, Burnham has spent much of his first few weeks promising a radical shift in tone and policy.

He will tell the conference on Tuesday: “We can’t carry on as we are. Politics as usual has taken Britain backwards. More of the same isn’t good enough and isn’t going to get us where we need to be.”

Though the conference has been upbeat, Burnham will tell Labour delegates he wanted to strike a serious tone with his speech and address some of the most intractable issues in British politics, such as social care, energy costs and youth inactivity.

In the speech, the prime minister will say that he will resist “the usual tub-thumping conference speech … the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed”.

He will say “everyone wants less drift and more direction” and that he will “answer that call” today. His offer – expected to contain a number of new policies – will be “a more serious prospectus for Britain than people have been offered in a generation”.

“I accept people will not agree with every part of it, but I believe it can turn Britain around,” he will say.

The creation of GB Grid is his first significant step to challenging the power of private companies to run Britain’s infrastructure.

The organisation will be given access to a pot of £4bn that has already been allocated to the government-backed Great British Energy – although it is not expected to use all of that money.

With businesses complaining about how long it takes to get a grid connection for new buildings and projects, GB Grid will use the funding to build more connections, as well as to maximise and speed up the rollout of renewables across the UK. It will be the first publicly owned player in electricity networks since privatisation.

Officials said the government would also expand the rights of businesses to build their own connections, allowing them to tap GB Grid’s funding to help pay for it – a move which they said helped speed up connections in Ireland by 11 months.

Speaking to the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast on Monday, the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, said: “One of my frustrations with the last government is that they didn’t recognise the need to invest in the system, and so we’re having to do that at record pace over the course of the next decade.”

On social care, the prime minister will promise “an honest conversation” with the public, saying: “Hope comes from honesty and from saying the things politicians usually avoid.”

His promise to “rip the plaster off” when it comes to funding for the national care service has sparked speculation he could use the next Labour manifesto to scrap the pension triple lock and use the savings for social care instead.

The triple lock – which guarantees the state pension will rise by the highest of inflation, earnings and 2.5% every year – is forecast to cost £15.5bn by 2030, but so far no major party has remained committed to scrapping it.

Speaking to ITV’s Robert Peston on Monday, the chancellor, John Healey, repeatedly refused to commit to funding the triple lock beyond the next election.

“I’m not telling you what the next manifesto will or won’t contain – I can’t do that,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you what the budget in a month’s time is going to take.”

The prime minister is also set to talk about youth unemployment ahead of a planned report by former minister Alan Milburn on why the number of unemployed young people is rising.

While the government has already announced additional support for young people to get into work, ministers have said relatively little about whether they will reduce benefits for those who remain out of work in the long term.

Answering calls on LBC Radio on Monday, Burnham said he would use his speech to outline “how I think we should go forward in the next decade”.

“It will require some significant changes, but I’m doing it with the best of intentions,” he said.