Government should reform governance arrangements to enable the transformational change in network infrastructure that will be required to support a decarbonised electricity system, including:

• completing the setup of the Independent System Operator by the end of 2024, and ensuring it has the duties, tools and access to data necessary to plan and manage interactions between energy vectors
• ensuring the Independent System Operator has a duty to develop and maintain a strategic spatial energy plan, with the first version of this plan in place by 2025 and updated regularly
• providing strategic clarity to Ofgem through the Strategy and Policy Statement by the end of 2023 on the need for investment in electricity distribution and local flexibility solutions ahead of need that are sufficient to meet the demands of electric vehicles and heat pumps implied by carbon budgets
• establishing the Regional System Planners proposed by Ofgem in time to inform the next electricity distribution price control in 2028.