Nationalise Energy Companies
This petition gathered 109,310 signatures between 9 February 2022 and 9 August 2022, according to the Parliament petitions site. The Government responded on 1 September 2022. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 31 October 2022.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Nationalise Energy Companies
The Government needs to take back ownership of strategic energy assets. It needs to accept that the Free Market has failed the energy sector, that it is in the national interest to renationalise our energy assets. The Government must therefore renationalise all the UK energy assets.
People are already having to choose whether to heat or eat. Token gestures of mandatory loans & stripping local authorities of much needed monies to mitigate bulk cost increases, mismanagement of the energy sector & the whim of the market are not good enough. This country needs a 25 year strategic plan and needs to be guided away from unstable fossil fuel dependancy. The Government needs to own the energy assets in order to achieve this, tackle climate change & protect service users interests.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 1 September 2022. Its summary:
The Government does not agree that nationalisation of energy assets is the right approach. Properly regulated markets provide the best outcome for consumers as a driver of efficiency and innovation.
The opening 327 words of the 657-word response:
The Government does not agree that nationalisation of the country’s strategic energy assets is the right approach. A renationalised energy company would still have to buy the same expensive gas on global markets, so prices won't be lowered. Furthermore, if the Government renationalised energy companies, the British taxpayer would have to compensate directors, shareholders, and creditors to the tune of tens of billions of pounds – money that would be better spent supporting families.
In the 1970s, nationalised utilities run by politicians were in a bad state. These monopolies made considerable losses, were inefficient and needed considerable investment to upgrade age-old infrastructure. Since privatisation in the 1980s, the UK’s energy system has attracted hundreds of billions of pounds in private capital – money that otherwise would have had to come from higher taxes or additional borrowing. This investment improved performance and reliability of Britain’s energy network and offered consumers greater choice and higher standards of products and services.
The Government therefore continues to believe that properly regulated markets, which incentivise private capital to invest in the energy system, provide the best outcome for consumers and promote market competition as the best driver of efficiency, innovation and value. This approach has served consumers well since energy privatisation, catalysing billions of pounds of investment and improving performance and reliability and offering consumers greater choice and higher standards of products and services.
The Government has set out a comprehensive long-term plan for greater energy independence. The more clean, affordable power we generate within our borders, the less exposed we will be to eye watering fossil fuel prices set by global markets we can’t control.
Through our Energy Security Strategy, we are working to our vulnerability to international oil and gas prices by reducing our dependence on expensive oil and gas. We will do this by accelerating the deployment of wind, new nuclear, solar and hydrogen, whilst supporting North Sea oil and gas in the nearer term for security of supply.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 357, came from Wallasey.
109,013 of the signatures were from the UK and 297 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Wallasey | 357 |
| Liverpool, Riverside | 351 |
| Knowsley | 346 |
| Bristol West | 342 |
| Brighton, Pavilion | 340 |
| Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport | 336 |
| Rossendale and Darwen | 332 |
| Salford and Eccles | 329 |
| Darlington | 327 |
| Southampton, Itchen | 317 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| North West | 14,606 |
| South East | 14,494 |
| London | 11,260 |
| East of England | 10,120 |
| Scotland | 9,935 |
| South West | 9,586 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 9,286 |
| West Midlands | 8,930 |
| East Midlands | 7,926 |
| Wales | 5,801 |
| North East | 5,396 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,116 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 31 October 2022. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/608056.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
900239df3516bb45… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.