AS the new energy price kicks in this week, where does the truth lie on what’s caused it.

As someone who has been saying for 30 years, ‘we must get an energy policy for the future,’ here is a simple and brief overview.

The government are saying it’s mostly down to Russian aggression to Ukraine – is this the whole truth? It seems not! The world price of gas has gone up sharply due to the war and of course our own sanctions and import ban on Russian gas.

But we only import around fove per cent of Russian gas, so that can’t be it. There are two other main reasons for the steep rise.

Firstly, how energy is priced, and the highest generated product is what everything else is bench-marked to. Therefore, as an example only, if solar costs 4p per kWh, and nuclear is 6p per kWh, and gas costs 12 per kWh, the price the consumer has to pay is the top price of 12p; for all of it, even if all your electricity is green energy.

This system is not only wrong, but not even honest business. If we were to take back all energy supplies into state run hands and made the tariffs reflect the real generating costs, the prices would come down and we would have full control of our own energy supply.

At this time most energy suppliers and companies have been sold off to over-seas companies, and in the process only thinking about their profits and not the hardship of our own citizens, this must change!

The second reason for us finding ourselves in such a mess is, over 30 years the UK has not built a balanced energy supply.

We had a dash for gas as we closed coal fired stations, it was quick and easy, but with no thought of long-term security of supply. We should have built two or three extra nuclear power stations; a massive push for green energy, with every new building having solar power; real investment in wave and Hydrogen power, and finally, starting to insulate all the older housing stock properly.

And to make my point, we still have to wait to at least 2025 before the new building standards come in, when Infact, we could start this next year. My verdict is a catalogue of doing nothing, no planning and hoping for the best.

If the UK wants to grow and not freeze its citizens, then much bigger and radical decisions must be made other than cutting the 45p rate of tax and borrowing the money to do so; ridiculous!

As this is a real emergency, we need an emergency panel to be set up with a third being politicians, third being energy experts and third being conservation experts.

The remit to come up with a plan in six months’ time that will make us self-sufficient in energy and at the real price of energy per type and not market rigged prices.

And just as important, get on and do it immediately. Real leaders need to be big enough to admit when they are wrong!