Energy bills will soar for millions of families from April after Jeremy Hunt warned there will be “sacrifices” and “constraint”.
The Chancellor warned he will make “difficult decisions” about the “very, very expensive support” for bills in his Autumn Statement this Thursday.
He added he won’t be offering “motherhood and apple pie” or "cakeism" - an accusation he laid at Boris Johnson ’s door.
The Energy Price Guarantee is capping household bills at an average of £2,500 between October 1 and March 31 - at a cost of £60billion to taxpayers.
But the Chancellor will slash this - and today it emerged he could spend £20billion for the following six months.
Treasury officials have discussed a scenario where average annual bills go up from £2,500 to between £2,850 and £3,100, the Sunday Times revealed.
That could mean a £600 a year rise on current bills - and a rise of nearly £2,000 a year since mid-2021, when the average bill was £1,277.
Mr Hunt told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We don't want anyone not to be able to afford to heat their home over this winter or indeed future winters.
"But in the long run, what you need is a plan that means we don't need to have to give very, very expensive support as taxpayers.”
He said his plan announced in Thursday’s Budget statement “will continue to support families” but it will not be “uncapped” or “unlimited”.
He added: “There has to be some constraint”.
The Chancellor warned “we’re all going to be paying a bit more tax ” as he eyes up £33bn a year of spending cuts and £21bn a year of tax rises by 2027.
Reports suggest he will cut the £150,000 threshold for 45p tax to £125,000 to generate £1.3billion a year, and cut energy bills support from £60bn in the current six months to just £20bn in the six months afterwards.
The Chancellor admitted he will be a “Scrooge” in his Autumn Statement on Thursday with no "rabbits out of the hat”.
He refused to deny it would mark a “return to austerity”, replying there will be “difficult decisions” and “we will be asking everyone for sacrifices”.
Mr Hunt, who earns £151,649, said I’m a Celeb contestant Matt Hancock was the only person on Planet Earth with a worse job than his.
"I think eating testicles in the jungle is literally the only job in the world that's worse than mine,” he told The Sunday Times.
Echoing George Osborne’s austerity rhetoric, he tried to claim the nation’s finances were like a family budget - despite the £2.4trillion national debt.
He told Sky: “Families have to make sure that in the end, they can pay their bills. They don't just max out on their credit card without having any way of repaying those debts. It's just the same for countries - and we have to do that.
“Because if we want to put more money into the NHS, if we want to help people who are going to find it very, very difficult this winter, then we need to have the resources to do that and that means we have to take difficult decisions even at moments like this.”
He also rejected striking nurses' demands for a 17% pay rise, which his Health Secretary blasted as "neither reasonable nor affordable".
Mr Hunt said: “I think we have to recognise a difficult truth that if we gave everyone inflation-proof pay rises, inflation would stay, we wouldn't bring down inflation.”
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said “it’s a badge of shame” that nurses are staging their first ever nationwide strike in England, but also refused to commit to a 17% pay rise.
She said "I’m not going to pluck numbers out of the air" and "it’s up to the pay review bodies to work with the unions", despite the fact the pay review bodies have already reported back and it's up to the government.
Mr Sunak’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said ministers will also be seeking savings through "rooting out waste".
John Glen said Government could be made "more efficient" by accelerating the sale of under-used buildings, particularly "expensive central London properties", and "turbo-charging" plans to digitise public services.
But Mr Hunt admitted the NHS is on the brink of collapse after 12 years of Tory rule.
He was told by Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge that “Frankly this doesn't look like a health service that can find efficiency savings - this looks like a health service that is on the brink of collapse”.
The top Tory, a former Health Secretary and ex-chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, replied: “There are massive pressures in the NHS.
"Obviously it’s something I know very well from previous jobs I’ve done, and I think that doctors, nurses on the frontline are frankly under unbearable pressure, so I do recognise the picture you say.
"It’s also true there is a lot of money going into the NHS.”
