Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Energy infrastructure and energy security, Summer 2025, UK

Published 28 October 2025

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The DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker is a nationally representative annual survey of adults (aged 16+) in the UK that tracks public awareness, attitudes and behaviours relating to the policies of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), such as energy and climate change.

This report provides a summary of the headline findings relating to energy infrastructure and energy security from the Summer 2025 wave of the Tracker, which ran from 8 July to 13 August 2025.

Notes for interpretation of findings

Differences between groups are only reported where they are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval level.

The annual personal income referred to in the report is a self-reported measure.

The age-related findings are reported using 6 age groups (16-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 65 and over). In some cases, findings across age groups have been combined to describe a general trend, for example, ‘between 78% and 88% of people aged 45 and above’ refers to the range of percentages for the 3 age groups 45-54, 55-64 and 65+.

Please note that some of the geographical findings have fluctuated over time. These variations may, in part, be due to the base sizes in specific areas and the wide geographic area covered by regions.

Two summary self-reported measures are used in this report:

  • ‘Awareness’ encompasses all respondents who said they had heard of a particular concept or technology, including those who said they know ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’.
  • ‘Knowledge’ encompasses those who said that they know ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’ about a topic.

Awareness and support for new electricity network infrastructure

A question on awareness of the need for new electricity network infrastructure, is asked annually in Summer waves; it was also included in Winter 2024[footnote 1].

Before being presented with the questions, the topic was introduced as follows: ‘As the UK increases the amount of electricity generated from low carbon and renewable sources, more electricity network infrastructure will be required to transfer electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed. This will include pylons, overhead power lines, and substations. Substations are sites which connect the main network to the distribution networks that supply homes and businesses. This includes sites that connect the offshore electricity transmission network onshore.’

In Summer 2025, 81% of people said they were aware of the need to build more electricity network infrastructure, up from 75% in Winter 2024 and reaching the highest level so far (Figure 3.1). Knowledge (knowing a lot or a fair amount) also increased between Winter 2024 and Summer 2025 from 21% to 27%.

Figure 3.1: Awareness of the need to build more electricity network infrastructure (% based on all people), Summer 2023, Summer 2024, Winter 2024, Summer 2025*

INFRAKNOW. Before today how much, if anything, did you know about the need to build more electricity network infrastructure as part of the UK’s transition to low carbon and renewable energy? *‘Don’t know’ option not included in answer list from Winter 2024.

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2023 (4,000), Summer 2024 (3,642), Winter 2024 (3,211), Summer 2025 (3,436).

*The findings for Summer 2025 have been rebased to ensure comparability with Winter 2024. See footnote at the start of this section for further details.

Analysis by subgroups

Overall awareness of the need to build more energy infrastructure was higher among the following subgroups:

  • People in age groups 55 and over: between 86% and 87% declining to 76% of those in age groups under 35.
  • People with a degree: 82% compared with 77% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in rural areas: 85% compared with 80% of those living in urban areas.
  • People living in the Scotland (85%); in contrast the lowest levels of awareness were observed in Northern Ireland (72%).

Subgroup differences for knowledge (knowing a lot or a fair amount) about the need to build more energy infrastructure were similar, being higher among the following subgroups:

  • People in age groups 55 and over: between 30% and 31%, compared with between 22% and 25% of those in age groups between 16 and 44.
  • People with a degree: 32% compared with 18% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in rural areas: 36% compared with 25% of those living in urban areas.
  • People living in the East of England (35%) and Scotland (34%); in contrast the lowest levels were reported in Yorkshire and the Humber (20%) and Northern Ireland (21%).

The following introduction was then provided as context to a further question on attitudes towards new electricity infrastructure being built locally: ‘Now imagine that there are plans for new electricity network infrastructure to be constructed in your local area. This could include building a substation and large visible steel pylons supporting overhead power lines’.

In Summer 2025, 18% of people said they would be happy (very or fairly) to have new electricity network infrastructure built in their local area, down from 23% in Summer 2024 (Figure 3.2). Conversely the proportion who would be unhappy (very or fairly) had increased to 32%, increasing steadily from 28% in Summer 2023. A large proportion said they wouldn’t mind either way (35%).

Figure 3.2: How happy would be to have new electricity network infrastructure built in the local area (% based on all people), Summer 2023, Summer 2024, Summer 2025

INFRAHAPP. How happy or unhappy would you be about this? If you already have this in your local area, answer on the basis of how you feel about this now.

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2023 (3,987), Summer 2024 (3,627), Summer 2025 (3,508).

Analysis by subgroups

Overall unhappiness for new local electricity infrastructure was higher among the following subgroups:

  • People in age groups 45 and over: between 36% and 42% compared with between 22% of those in age groups from 16 to 34.
  • People with a degree: 35% compared with 27% of those with no qualifications.
  • People living in the South East (42%) compared with those in most other regions (32% overall).
  • People living in rural areas (43%) compared with those in urban areas (30%).

Respondents who expressed support for building more local electricity network infrastructure (18% overall) were asked to choose their reasons from a provided list[footnote 2]. In Summer 2025, the main reasons for support were largely in line with those reported in Summer 2024: using more sustainable sources of power (62%), followed by the need to update existing infrastructure (53%). Other reasons for support included lower dependence on foreign energy sources (39%), benefiting the UK economy (38%) and cheaper energy bills (38%). Job creation was also chosen by 38% of this subgroup, up from 31% in Summer 2024.

Those who said they would be unhappy for more local electricity infrastructure (32% overall) were also asked to select their reasons from a list[footnote 3]. In Summer 2025, the main concerns were largely in line with those selected in Summer 2024: the impact on the view (60%) and on local plant and animal life (57%). This was followed by concerns about the impact on house prices (46%, up from 42% in Summer 2024), health impacts (44%) and the infrastructure being noisy (43%). A smaller proportion were concerned about a perceived lack of benefit to the local community (23%, up from 19% in Summer 2024) and local economy (17% up from 14%), and increased electricity bills (19% up from 15%).

Concerns about energy security

Annually, in summer waves, people are asked about their level of concern regarding a range of issues relating to energy security in the next 10-20 years (Figure 3.3)[footnote 4].

The findings in this section relating to energy costs and security should be viewed in the light of volatile energy prices over the period between the Summer 2022 and Summer 2025 survey waves[footnote 5].

In Summer 2025, the findings can be summarised as follows (Figure 3.3):

  • Almost all (91%) were concerned about steep rises in energy prices and 60% were very concerned about this.
  • Around 8 in 10 were concerned about insufficient investment in alternative sources of energy (82%), more frequent power cuts (78%), and over-dependence on energy from other countries (78%). Just over 7 in 10 (73%) expressed concern about insufficient UK supplies of fossil fuels.
  • Findings remained broadly in line with Summer 2024, but some time trends were observed.
    • Between Summer 2024 and Summer 2025 there were increased levels of concern about sufficient supplies of UK fossil fuels (from 69% to 73%).
    • Over the longer term since Summer 2022, people are now less likely to be very concerned about steep energy prices, although this proportion did increase between Summer 2024 and Summer 2025 (from 55% to 60%).

Figure 3.3: Concern about energy security in future (% based on all people), baseline (Summer 2022) and 2 most recent waves (Summer 2024 & Summer 2025)

ENSECCONCERN1-5. Now some questions about how concerned you are about various things happening in the future. By ‘the future’ we mean the next 10-20 years. So, how concerned, if at all, are you about…

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2022/Summer 2024/Summer 2025: Steep rises (4,487/3,642/3,526), Not investing (4,472/3,639/3,525), Power cuts (4,462/3,637/3,522), Too dependent (4,479/3,630/3,514), Supplies not being sufficient (4,469/3,640/3,525).

Note: This chart contains data from the baseline wave of Summer 2022 and the 2 most recent waves. Data from Summer 2023 has been omitted to improve readability and can be found in the published time series file. 

Analysis by subgroups

By age:

  • Older people were more likely than younger people to be concerned about more frequent power cuts (from 89% of people aged 65+ to 65% of people aged under 25) and UK dependency on foreign energy sources (from 87% to 65% respectively).

By education:

  • People with a degree were most likely to be concerned about the UK not investing quickly enough in alternative energy sources (86% compared with 77% of those with no qualifications).
  • However, people with a degree were less likely to be concerned about insufficient fossil fuel supplies (66% vs 79% without qualifications).

By household income:

  • People with an annual household income of £45,000 or more were less likely to be very concerned about steep rises in prices (49%) compared with those in income bands below £45,000 (between 58% and 63%).

By geography:

  • Concern about more frequent power cuts was highest for people living in the East of England (85%), the North East (84%) and the South West (83%); in contrast it was lowest in Scotland (68%).

People who were very or fairly concerned about the UK becoming too dependent on energy from other countries (78% overall) were asked to identify the specific energy sources they had in mind[footnote 6]. In Summer 2025, similar to Summer 2024, the most common response was gas (68%), followed by oil (55%) then electricity (47%). As in Summer 2024, 16% said they were not thinking about any specific sources.

Support for domestic production of oil and gas

A further question is asked annually to assess support for reducing domestic production of oil and gas, even if that means buying more from other countries. In Summer 2025, 11% agreed that the UK should reduce domestic production of oil and gas, even if that means buying more from other countries, down from 13% in Summer 2024 (Figure 3.4). Similar to previous waves, 57% disagreed, with 37% disagreeing strongly.

Figure 3.4: Extent to which agree that the UK should produce less of its own oil and gas even if that means buying more fuel from other countries (% based on all people), Summer 2023, Summer 2024, Summer 2025

ENSECOWN. How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The UK should produce less of its own oil and gas, even if that means we need to buy more fuel from other countries. 

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2023 (3,986), Summer 2024 (3,634), Summer 2025 (3,470).

Overall disagreement that the UK should reduce domestic production was higher among people in age groups 55 and over (70%) with this falling to 35% of those aged 16 to 24.

Overall agreement was highest for people in age groups under 35 (between 15% and 18%) and lowest for those in age groups 45 and over (between 8% and 9%).

Perceived importance of different aspects of energy policy

A new annual question was introduced in Summer 2024, asking respondents how important various aspects of energy policy were to them personally (Figure 3.5). People were asked to rate 4 items on a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 was most important. Two items (cost of energy and uninterrupted supply of energy) relate to factors which affect people on a day-to-day basis, while the other 2 items (UK energy independence and low-carbon generated energy) relate to broader issues. Importance rating scores were banded into low (0-4), medium (5-6), high (7-8) and very high (9-10). Overall high importance includes ratings of 7 or more.

In Summer 2025, all the different aspects of energy policy were regarded as important, with at least 64% giving a high or very high importance score of 7 or more to each. Issues affecting day-to-day life were regarded as most important, while broader issues were rated lower in terms of importance.

Findings below are based on 2 summary ratings: high importance (score of 7 or more) and very high importance (9-10). In Summer 2025:

  • 90% of people rated a reliable, uninterrupted supply of energy as of high importance (down slightly from 92% in Summer 2024), with 71% rating this as of very high importance.
  • 85% rated the cost of energy as of high importance, with 62% rating this as very high importance (up from 60% in Summer 2024).
  • 69% rated the UK becoming self-sufficient and not buying fuel from other countries as of high importance (down from 75% in Summer 2024), with 49% saying this was of very high importance (down from 51%).
  • 64% rated energy from cleaner sources as of high importance (down from 71% in Summer 2024), with very high importance at 38% (down from 44%).

Figure 3.5: Importance of different aspects of energy policy (% based on all people), Summer 2024, Summer 2025

ENERG3.V2. Now thinking about energy. On a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the least important and 10 being the most important, please indicate how important each of these is to you personally:

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2024 / Summer 2025: reliable energy supply (3,639/3,523), cost of energy (3,640/3,525), UK becoming self-sufficient (3,639/3,524), cleaner energy sources (3,638/3,520).

Analysis by subgroups

By age:

  • For all 4 issues, people aged 65 and over were most likely to give a very high importance score (9-10). For example, the proportion of those aged 65 and over assigning a very high score to the UK becoming energy self-sufficient was 70% compared with 22% of those aged 16 to 24.

By education:

  • People with no qualifications were more likely to assign a very high importance score to the cost of energy (66% vs 55% with a degree) and the UK becoming energy self-sufficient (58% vs 46% with a degree).

By geography:

  • People living in the North East (69%), the North West (68%) and the East Midlands (67%) were most likely to assign a very high importance score to the cost of energy; this was lowest for those in the East of England (55%) and the South East (57%).
  • People living in the North West (59%) and the East Midlands (56%) were most likely to assign a very high importance score to the UK becoming self-sufficient; this was lowest in London (38%) and Northern Ireland (40%).

By self-reported knowledge of Net Zero:

  • With the exception of the cost of energy, people who said they knew a lot or a fair amount about Net Zero were more likely to give a very high importance score to each measure. For example, 54% of those who knew a lot or fair amount about Net Zero gave very high importance ratings for the UK becoming self-sufficient (vs 35% of those unaware), with a similar difference for using cleaner energy sources (42% vs 29% respectively).

Awareness of greenhouse gas removals

A new annual question was introduced in Summer 2024 to assess awareness of greenhouse gas removals (GGRs)[footnote 7]. Before being asked about level of awareness, respondents were provided with a brief description of GGRs as follows:

‘Now some questions about greenhouse gas removals (GGRs). These are methods that remove greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help tackle climate change. The purpose of GGRs is to help achieve Net Zero in the UK by 2050, balancing out emissions from industries such as air travel and farming, where eliminating greenhouse gas emissions will be more challenging. Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs) can be based on natural approaches. However, they can also be based on engineered approaches. Engineered approaches use technology to remove greenhouse gases from the environment and store them permanently, for example offshore in underground storage sites.’

In Summer 2025, 63% said that they were aware of GGRs, down from 66% in Summer 2024 (Figure 3.6). Knowledge had also fallen from 14% to 12% over the same period. Just over half said they knew just a little (27%) or hardly anything (24%) about GGRs.

Figure 3.6: Awareness of greenhouse gas removals (% based on all people), Summer 2024, Summer 2025

GGRKNOW. Before today, how much, if anything, did you know about engineered greenhouse gas removals (GGRs)?

Base: All wave respondents – Summer 2024 (3,642), Summer 2025 (3,519).

Analysis by subgroups

Self-reported awareness and knowledge of GGRs varied by education:

  • People with a degree were more likely to be both aware of GGRs (69% compared with 57% of those with no qualifications) and to claim knowledge (a lot or a fair amount) about them (17% compared with 10% of those with another kind of qualification and 8% of those with no qualifications).

Further findings on energy infrastructure and energy security

In previous waves, questions were included on other topics relating to energy infrastructure and energy security. The latest findings relating to these topics can be found as follows:

  1. It should be noted that the tracking data is not wholly comparable due to a change in the question. The ‘don’t know’ answer code was removed from Winter 2024 onwards to be more consistent with other questions of this style. However, it was erroneously added back in Summer 2025. To ensure comparability with Winter 2024, results have been rebased on results excluding the 4% of people who answered ‘don’t know’ in Summer 2025. ↩

  2. INFRAWHYHAPP: You said you would be very or fairly happy for electricity network infrastructure to be built in your local area. Why is this? (Base size: 614) ↩

  3. INFRAWHYNO: You said you would be very or fairly unhappy for electricity transmission network infrastructure to be built in your local area. Why is this? (Base size: 1,339) ↩

  4. These statements were cognitive tested again to check they were still understandable, as they have been in the PAT since 2012. Cognitive testing found that one of the 6 potential concerns: ‘the UK not developing technology to get the most out of its existing sources of fossil fuels’ was difficult to interpret and there was conflation with other technologies (e.g. electric vehicles). Therefore, this statement was removed in Summer 2025. For findings relating to this statement see Summer 2024 report on energy infrastructure and energy sources – section on ‘Concerns about energy security’ ↩

  5. An overview of domestic energy price changes can be found here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9491/ ↩

  6. ENSECSOURCE: You said that you are very or fairly concerned about the UK being too dependent on energy from other countries. When you gave this answer, were you thinking about specific energy types? (Base size: 3,470) ↩

  7. To improve question ordering this question was moved to later in the questionnaire in Summer 2025, from before the ‘climate change’ section, to the ‘Net Zero’ section, after the existing Net Zero questions. ↩

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