Energy industry insider Arthur Downing joins journalist and author Hettie O’Brien for the launch of Power and the People: A History of British Energy, a provocative history of how Britain built, nationalised, privatised and ultimately fractured one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in our lives.

Beginning with the municipal electricity companies of the early 20th century, Downing charts the extraordinary transformation that followed as publicly owned enterprises electrified Britain at breakneck speed. Power stations, pylons and a national grid changed the landscape, and transformed everyday life.
Then came privatisation. From the 1980s onwards, electricity and gas were broken apart and sold off, creating a market-based system that Downing argues has become increasingly dysfunctional.

But Power and the People isn’t simply a diagnosis of what went wrong. Downing returns to Britain’s own history to make the case for another way forward, asking whether the energy transition now required might also demand a revolution in who owns and controls the power on which we all depend.