With the Labour Party having just passed its first year in government, the direction of travel is clear: the UK’s energy future will be green, publicly anchored and legally reconfigured. Samuel Mills, charted legal executive at Roythornes Solicitors, explores the legal perspective of what this means.
Since Keir Starmer was elected as Prime Minister last summer, the key policy signals around the energy agenda have revealed a deliberate attempt not merely to accelerate renewable deployment, but to reshape the regulatory and market structures through which energy is developed, financed and delivered.
For businesses, communities and individuals these changes amount to far more than policy headlines. They are creating new obligations, opportunities and risks in areas ranging from planning law to procurement, from subsidy frameworks to corporate governance. For legal practitioners the implications are profound – we have moved from incremental evolution to an environment defined by policy acceleration and structural transformation.
A year of change
Perhaps the most transformative move so far is the launch of Great British Energy, the new publicly owned energy company. Having received Royal Assent in May 2025, GBE has been allocated £8.3 billion for strategic investments across the sector, marking a clear shift towards the state acting not only as regulator but also as market participant.
For investors and developers this raises novel legal questions: how will competition law apply where the state is both referee and player? What procurement frameworks will govern GBE partnerships? How will accountability to Parliament intersect with contractual obligations to commercial partners? These questions will shape transactions in the years to come.
Aside from that headline grabbing policy, one of Labour’s first energy acts was to scrap restrictions that had effectively halted new onshore wind development in England since 2015, reopening a development pathway that had been politically frozen for nearly a decade. For developers, communities and local authorities the legal questions are now less about whether projects can proceed and more about how planning frameworks, community benefit models and grid capacity will shape delivery.
Labour’s first Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction also marked a notable expansion in renewable generation capacity, with offshore wind making up a significant share of awards. Estimates suggest as much as 4.9GW could come online from this round alone, and the government’s commitment to faster and larger auctions means developers will need legal support at pace, particularly around subsidy compliance and procurement law.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has also made clear that solar is back on the agenda both at utility and rooftop scale. Commitments to streamline planning processes for solar farms and to expand rooftop deployment will inevitably generate legal friction around agricultural land use, biodiversity net gain obligations and local opposition – somewhere which lawyers will play a critical role in advising on project viability, connection prioritisation and disputes over grid access.
The legal market’s new reality
These developments have significantly reframed the market around energy, and that is already having an impact on businesses, communities and individuals.
For businesses, Labour’s agenda signals a need to embed compliance and resilience into their energy strategies. Supply chain audits, land acquisition contracts and subsidy applications will all demand more rigorous legal oversight.
From a community perspective, the return of onshore wind and the growth of solar mean a fresh wave of consultation processes, community benefit agreements and potential disputes. Legal practitioners will increasingly be asked to balance local consent with national policy imperatives.
When it comes to the impact on the individual, the implications will be felt most directly in consumer rights, energy pricing and the regulation of new technologies from home batteries to rooftop solar leases. Clear contractual frameworks will be essential to avoid mis-selling scandals of the type that dogged earlier renewable rollouts.
Labour’s first year has laid the groundwork for what amounts to a reconfiguration of the UK’s energy landscape, anchored in public investment, legislative reform and a commitment to net zero by 2030. Crucially this reconfiguration is not linear: it is political, accelerated and structural, and the creation of GBE, the removal of planning barriers and the expansion of subsidy mechanisms all point to a state that is no longer a distant regulator but an active participant.
Closing argument
For the legal profession this demands a broader advisory perspective, one that integrates regulatory, commercial and public law dimensions. Practitioners must engage with clients not only as legal counsel but as interpreters of a shifting political economy. Success in this environment will rest on agility, foresight and an ability to anticipate how today’s legislative reforms will shape tomorrow’s disputes and opportunities.
Labour’s surge into the renewable space has changed the rules of the game. The next phase of the UK’s energy transition will be shaped as much by legal frameworks as by technological innovation. For businesses, communities and individuals alike the challenge will be to navigate a landscape where law, policy and politics are more tightly intertwined than ever before.
The energy transition is no longer just an environmental project – it is a legal one too.