Energy Bills

Posted this on the S&I thread but probably more relevant here. I've had a policy idea which I think might work but feel free to shoot down.

For Branded medicines in the UK we have two pricing schemes for pharma companies who sell in the UK. These set a limit on the revenue that can be made by the sector in the UK in any year and all revenue above that limit is clawed back by the government. Government are very careful not to call this a tax and instead present it as a saving to the NHS as that is the sole purchaser of branded medicines in the UK. However in effect it is essentially a tax and massively limits the profits of the sector. I actually think in the recent past the scheme has been too tight and we risked Pharma companies reactions but the changes to the schemes in 2024 and 2025 seem to have addressed this. There is the Voluntary Scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2024-voluntary-scheme-for-branded-medicines-pricing-access-and-growth
And that is underpinned by a legal backstop that is the statutory scheme:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-review-of-the-statutory-scheme-for-branded-medicines-pricing

Why can't a similar scheme be applied to other sectors where specific conditions are found (small number of large and powerful companies making economically excess profits from essential goods). Top of that list being Energy. That would have the dual benefit of reduced prices for consumers and increased revenue for government. My very very rough calculations suggest doing similar to the energy sector could take £350 a year off the "average" energy bill, raise £10bn for the government and leave £10bn in profit for the sector.

Money raise could be used to take green subsidies off of the standing charge -reducing bills further. The rest could also be invested in building renewable infrastructure and growing the national owned GB energy company to become a genuine option as an energy generator and provider bringing prices down in the long term.

When applied to medicines this approach actually had the effect of increasing the pharma companies investment in the UK (or it did until Brexit fucked with our access to the European market) as the costs of this could be written off against the scheme and so investment represented a massive saving for them. This led to jobs and growth in the UK. This could actually encourage the fossil fuel giants to invest in renewable infrastructure.

Any reason why this wouldn't work? if we can do it to big pharma why can't we do it to energy? Most European countries have some kind of scheme to keep energy prices and company power down.

I don't think there would be any risk of them leaving the UK market as still have massive market power and captive customers.

Of course I'm not actually expecting this government to do it as their last election campaign was in part funded by those industries so I'm sure that came with promises.