London, February 1, 2026, 08:39 GMT — Market closed
National Grid shares closed 0.37% higher at 1,234.5 pence on Friday, about 5 pence below a one-year high, after Ofgem opened a consultation on its project assessment for the Bramford to Twinstead transmission upgrade. The regulator is reviewing the scheme under its Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment mechanism, including 18 km of new overhead lines and 11 km of underground cable between Suffolk and Essex, with responses due by March 2. The stock is up about 8% since the start of the year.
Why it matters now is simple: National Grid lives and dies by regulated returns and the cost of funding big builds. A consultation like this is not just paperwork — the assessment can shape what the company is allowed to spend and what it can recover through network charges.
That lands as the UK moves into a new price-control period. Ofgem’s RIIO framework — short for Revenues = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs — sets the revenue that network monopolies can collect, and the regulator has said RIIO-3 will run from April 1, 2026 to March 31, 2031.
The company also spent Friday talking to debt investors. In a presentation dated Jan. 30, National Grid set out its U.S. regulated businesses and funding structure and said it had access to £8.7 billion of undrawn committed facilities as of Sept. 30, 2025 — credit lines it can tap if markets seize up. The deck listed Group Treasurer Alexandra Lewis among the speakers.
In the wider market, London’s blue-chip index rose 0.5% on Friday to cap a seventh straight month of gains, helped by a weaker pound and a rally in banks after Donald Trump picked Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve. “The weaker pound is obviously beneficial for the multinationals,” said Fiona Cincotta of City Index. Reuters
Sterling’s drop has started to put rate expectations back at the centre of UK trading. The pound was down 0.56% at $1.3742 on Friday, and attention is shifting to next week’s BNP Paribas economist Dani Stoilova said “Updated projections are likely to show a more benign inflation outlook, supporting the BoE’s easing bias,” adding she expects a March cut and a 7–2 vote split at the meeting. Reuters
But the set-up can flip quickly. If bond yields rise again or the regulator takes a harder line on costs and outputs, utilities can reprice fast — and National Grid carries heavy investment needs in both the UK and the United States.
The next check-ins come quickly: the Bank of England says it will announce its next interest-rate decision on Feb. 5, and the UK’s inflation data for January is due on Feb. 18, a release that often shifts the outlook for rates and dividend-heavy shares like National Grid.
