SCOTS won’t get any extra help with surging energy bills this winter despite living in a colder climate, a top Treasury official said.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke – a Boris Johnson loyalist who did not join the tsunami of ministerial resignations this week – also said that he believed the £20 million allocated by the Scottish Government to hold indyref2 could be “better spent”.
Responding to Clarke’s comments, SNP Treasury spokesperson Alison Thewliss said independence was needed as Westminster was too “consumed by chaos” to act.
Clarke spoke to Scottish journalists on Tuesday morning just hours before his boss former chancellor Rishi Sunak resigned, in anticipation of a policy announcement to be made by the UK Government.
But with the Conservative Party engulfed in chaos, this did not come to fruition.
It comes as analysts have warned that bills could rise from the current record £1971 to £3245 in October and then further to £3364 at the start of next year.
Asked if the government would consider extending extra support to those living in Scotland who may have to pay more on heating their homes this winter because they have to deal with colder temperatures, Clarke said no.
He added: “We won’t act on a national basis.
“What we will do I can promise is make sure that we continue to look at this question very closely because energy costs are the biggest single driver of the increase in fuel bills – sorry, in household living costs rather – and the absolute priority is to make sure that we’re working to address that.”
“And if you look at what Paul Johnson [director] of the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said, he has been clear that the cumulative effect of what we have done for the poorest in society is to offset the increase in cost of living this year, which I think is a significant achievement.”
Clarke claimed that one in three – around eight million – households are getting £1200 of “direct cash support”.
But in October last year, the UK government cut £20 a week from Universal Credit support, with those same low-income households seeing a loss of £1040 a year overnight.
Clarke added: “We’re confident that it’s the right package and we’re confident it will allow people this winter to stay warm.”
Clarke was also asked by journalists if he felt that the £20m allocated to hold a second independence referendum in October next year could be “better spent”.
He said: “The short answer to that question is of course yes, I do.
“You know, I think this is the wrong thing for them to be doing.
“I think now is not the time to be having this referendum and I am saddened that that is the case.
“Ultimately I think there are more pressing priorities at this moment than this but ultimately Sturgeon and her government will be accountable for that.”
Thewliss said that Scottish independence was needed to protect incomes.
She said: “The cost-of-living crisis is spiralling out of control and the grim reality is that the Tory government has repeatedly ignored the warnings and refused to properly act and deliver strengthened support to put money into people’s pockets.
“With rising bills, energy prices and food prices, the UK government must rise to the scale of the challenge and set out further meaningful support to help households.
“The reality is that Westminster is too consumed by chaos to protect people’s incomes and interests.
“Only with the full powers of independence will we be able to properly protect people’s interests and build a fairer, more prosperous country.”
