LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer has hailed ‘highly skilled’ workers behind ‘incredibly exciting’ technologies being manufactured in Slough to help secure the UK’s energy future.

Sir Keir Starmer and shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves toured Octopus Energy’s headquarters on the Slough Trading Estate to look at its new research and developments on Monday, January 23.

The renewable energy supplier’s founder and CEO Greg Jackson took the opposition leaders behind the scenes to showcase their innovations, such as heat pumps and electric vehicle charging points.

The pumps, which use electricity to compress energy from the air and turn it in to heat, offer an alternative to gas boilers.

Slough Observer: (Left) Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited Octopus Energy in Slough on Monday, January 23(Left) Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited Octopus Energy in Slough on Monday, January 23 (Image: James Bagley)

Sir Starmer and Ms Reeves also spoke to employees and engineers to discuss the energy sector and the company’s plans for the future.

This follows Sir Starmer’s visit to Davos where he set out Labour’s plans for a clean power alliance with companies, which builds on the party’s Green Prosperity Plan that seeks to lower the UK’s carbon emissions.

It also seeks to secure the future of the UK’s energy following rising costs due to the war in Ukraine.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) asked the Labour leader and Chancellor if they see Slough as a major powerhouse in renewable energy innovation for the UK.

He said: “What you have seen here in Slough is the technology and the innovation but also the jobs for the future.

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“We’ve been talking to people who are highly skilled in what they do. Some of them have been doing other jobs before they came here [Octopus Energy] and changed careers.

“We absolutely want to support not just the innovation and move to much more efficient ways to heating our homes but the jobs that come with it as well.”

Rachel Reeves added: “It’s incredibly exciting what’s happening here in Octopus Energy. It’s a real opportunity to reduce prices for consumers because renewables are the cheapest form of energy but to also boost our energy security.

Slough Observer: Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson (right) gave a tour of their facilitiesOctopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson (right) gave a tour of their facilities (Image: James Bagley)

“If we are generating more homegrown electricity, it means we are less reliant on [Russian President] Putin and dictators around the world for our basic essential needs.”

In September, the leader announced a Labour government will create Great British Energy – a new, publicly owned clean generation company – to the tune of £29bn that is said to freeze peoples’ rising energy bills.

Sir Starmer said it is “fully costed” as it will be invested alongside private businesses.

The Labour Leader recently visited Davos and told business leaders that under a Labour government, the UK is ‘open for business’ in a bid to draw more foreign investment, particularly in the green industries.

However, Sir Starmer said in the Newsagents podcast that he talked to CEOs of investment banks, such as JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Lloyds at Davos.

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When asked by the LDRS how this would benefit the UK and the public sector, he said: “We’ve got a real cost of living crisis, which is bearing down on people who can barely pay their bills this winter, and that’s because of 13 years of failure to grow our economy.

“So, we don’t have a strong economy. What we want to do is to make sure we have partnerships that can invest in the UK so we can have the plan to stabilise and grow our economy.

“It is vital that we fly the flag for the UK and make it absolutely clear that under a Labour government, we are open for business and we’ve got not just the desire but the ambition to stabilise and grow the economy.”

Ms Reeves added the UK has been “losing out” on global investment and Labour is “determined” to “turn that around,” which the economic growth that will come with that will improve living standards and public services, the shadow Chancellor said.