A leading UK energy boss has been accused of not prioritising affordability in order for his business to benefit after he claimed Brits focus on the “short-term affordability” of bills. Tom Glover, the head of RWE UK, one of the nation’s largest generators, said homeowners should be thinking about the long-term benefits of decarbonising energy supplies, opposed to the cost of their electricity bills. 

Mr Glover said MPs should continue with their Net Zero aims, which includes investing billions of pounds into offshore wind, as the longer-term gain would be much greater. RWE generates 10GW of power, enough power for 10 million homes in the UK. It has onshore and offshore wind projects, as well as gas and biomass plants. 

The green leader’s comments have been heavily criticised by both MPs and other energy firms, who have condemned Mr Glover for suggesting energy costs were “not the priority”.

Greg Jackson, chief executive officer of Octopus Energy, told The Times: “Families and firms are struggling but these companies fight for high costs because it suits their business model. Clean energy can be cheap but not if we let incumbents have their way.”

He added: “Amazon may not be perfect but [Jeff] Bezos is right to say there are companies who’ll work hard to charge as much as possible and those who’ll work hard to charge as little as possible. Energy is dominated by the former but needs more companies to be the latter.”

His comments follow Mr Glover’s interview with Utility Week, where he said: “We still need to make sure we’ve got a secure energy system and make sure we’ve got a decarbonised energy system. 

“At the moment, understandably given the pressures, there’s a lot of focus on one corner of that trilemma, which is affordability. And while we understand there’s probably a need to lean into that, we should never forget about security and decarbonisation as well.”

He added: “This pressure on affordability, which we understand and is maybe more focused on short-term affordability, isn’t really thinking long term because it’s very clear in the long term that things like offshore wind are part of an affordable energy transition.”

RWE said in a statement that Mr Glover had made clear in the article that he “fully understands the need to focus on affordability, while reminding that there are also two other parts of the energy trilemma — energy security and decarbonisation — to consider longer term”.