![\"\\u200bAlex](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/u200balex-baldock.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe chief executive of Britain\u2019s largest electricals retailer has warned soaring energy costs are undermining the nation\u2019s economic prospects and placing businesses at a competitive disadvantage.<\/p>\n
Alex Baldock, who leads Currys, drew a stark comparison with American rival Best Buy during remarks at the Centre for Policy Studies\u2019 Margaret Thatcher Conference in London on September 1.<\/p>\n
He said: “In 1990, Currys was paying the same per kilowatt an hour for energy as Best Buy \u2014 we’re now paying five times as much.”<\/p>\n
The outgoing boss, who is stepping down after eight years leading the company, joined calls from business leaders raising concerns about the UK\u2019s competitiveness.<\/p>\n
Electricity costs in the UK have steadily outpaced most EU countries and other major economies, with ongoing tensions in the Middle East expected to add further pressure.<\/p>\n
Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, also addressed the conference and delivered a critical assessment of Britain\u2019s regulatory framework.<\/p>\n
He said: “Energy regulation is brutally inefficient and bureaucratic barriers across industries are one of the main reasons our economy is in a near zero-growth mode.”<\/p>\n
He pointed to a gap between generation costs and what consumers ultimately pay for electricity.<\/p>\n
Britain paying five times more for electricity than US rivals, warns Currys boss<\/p>\n
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Solar and onshore wind generate electricity at roughly 5p per unit, while offshore wind and gas cost around 10p, according to Mr Jackson.<\/p>\n
Mr Jackson said: “Yet households typically pay 25p a unit and somehow just sending it down some wires multiplies the price by between 2.5 and five times.”<\/p>\n
Both executives identified regulatory complexity as a key constraint on economic growth in Britain.<\/p>\n
Research from Aurora Energy Research highlighted the scale of the UK\u2019s pricing gap compared with other countries.<\/p>\n
Domestic electricity prices reached 34.54p per kilowatt-hour in 2025, placing the UK behind only Germany and Ireland in Europe.<\/p>\n
By comparison, consumers in the United States paid 12.85p per kilowatt-hour, close to three times less than UK households.<\/p>\n
Currys\u2019 own energy costs have approximately doubled since the pandemic, even before the latest geopolitical tensions emerged.<\/p>\n
The increase reflects a 20 per cent rise in commodity prices alongside a more than twofold increase in non-commodity costs, including taxes and subsidies.<\/p>\n
![\"Miliband\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/miliband.jpg\")
Ed Miliband faces pressure to bring down energy costs<\/p>\n
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Ashutosh Padelkar, research lead at Aurora Energy Research, said the pricing disparity is largely driven by gas costs.<\/p>\n
“Gas determines wholesale electricity prices and Europe pays considerably more for gas than America.<\/p>\n
“That structural gap exists regardless of geopolitical shocks.”<\/p>\n
Mr Baldock said the current Gulf tensions had not yet “directly” had a “massive impact on businesses like ours” but warned of longer-term effects.<\/p>\n
He said: “Inevitably, when you have global recessions, people spend less money and that’s going to feed through to a squeeze in the market that Currys sells.”<\/p>\n
Household energy bills are expected to rise further when Ofgem updates its price cap later this summer.<\/p>\n
He added that Europe\u2019s reliance on energy taxation adds to the pressure, while the United States uses tax credits to reduce costs.<\/p>\n
Labour said it would accelerate the transition to domestically produced clean energy and take action to reduce the influence of gas on electricity prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The chief executive of Britain\u2019s largest electricals retailer has warned soaring energy costs are undermining the nation\u2019s economic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,234,653,253,18,12345,16],"class_list":{"0":"post-28042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-energy","10":"tag-energy-bills","11":"tag-money","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-octopus-energy","14":"tag-sgg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116514981406046213","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}