1.4m homes of gas: Burnham delays Jackdaw decision to after October 8
A decision on the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea was expected from Andy Burnham. According to the Express, it now appears to have been pushed back until after the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on 8 October, the contest triggered by Sir Keir Starmer's resignation. The field could heat the equivalent of 1.4 million UK homes.
Jackdaw is backed by Shell and Equinor and had already secured regulatory consent once. Further consent is needed because of legal challenges and changes to the project itself. The Express also points to foot dragging by the former energy secretary Ed Miliband as part of the reason the scheme has taken so long to reach this point.
The numbers attached to the field are the part the headlines tend to skip. On the figures reported, Jackdaw would supply enough gas for the equivalent of 1.4 million homes and around 6% of projected UK North Sea gas production. The developers say the platform is already installed and that, if consent is granted, gas could reach British homes and businesses within weeks.
The timing matters because of where the winter is heading. Oil prices are climbing on the back of the Iran war and gas storage levels are falling. Britain is heavily dependent on imported gas and has very little storage capacity of its own, which means every extra source of domestic supply carries more weight than it would in an ordinary year.
It is worth being straight about the limits. Even the Express, which is pressing hard for approval, accepts that Jackdaw will not magically slash anyone's energy bills or fix Britain's energy problems on its own. Gas is priced on an international market. What the field offers is a bit more domestic supply, not a discount on the bill landing on your doormat.
The politics are not hidden. The Green Party leader Zack Polanski is contesting Holborn and St Pancras and has made North Sea drilling a central issue in the campaign. The Express argues that Burnham, who had previously indicated he would approve drilling, now fears a backlash that would hand the seat to the Greens. The Conservatives have accused him of ducking the decision once already.
Critics say it fits a wider pattern. Defence spending decisions have been shifted into 2027, welfare reform has been left in the long grass, and a decision on the home secretary Shabana Mahmood's immigration plans has yet to come. The by-election is on 8 October, so a ruling on Jackdaw is not expected to be announced before that date.
For most households none of this changes the meter reading this week. What it does show is how a decision with a real effect on winter supply can be parked until a single seat has been fought over. Households will judge it later, when the heating goes back on and the first proper bill of the cold months arrives.
