Andrew Sissons, Deputy Director of Nesta's Sustainable Future mission said:

“We await the full report but from what we’ve seen, the Energy Security Strategy is heavy on long term ambition and light on quicker, greener wins like clean heat and onshore wind. Crucially, there is very little in this plan that will quickly help people with soaring energy bills.

Most of the good things in the plan will take years, if not decades to come good. The lack of any action on energy efficiency, either to insulate buildings or to make heating systems more efficient, is a glaring omission. These are things we can do cheaply and quickly, which would provide short term relief for households and long term benefits for the climate and the economy, and immediately reduce our reliance on Russian oil and gas.

It is encouraging to see the UK government take a long term view on electricity generation. In the future, we will need more than twice as much electricity as we use now - to power electric vehicles, heat pumps and clean industry. Extending the extraordinary growth of offshore wind and solar is entirely sensible.

The emphasis on nuclear is more risky given the huge expense, decades-long lead times, and the challenges involved in big infrastructure projects. If the bet on nuclear fails, it will leave a big hole in the UK’s energy supply in future. Given that risk, the lukewarm approach to onshore wind, potentially our cheapest power source, is disappointing.

In this time of crisis, the UK needs a plan to expand the cheapest, greenest energy sources, and to urgently reduce our energy use. This plan will help a little in the long term, but will achieve almost nothing in the next few years.”