THE UK Government is coming under more pressure than ever before to get its act together and take action over the ever-growing energy bill crisis.
Consultancy firm Cornwall Insight warned bills could climb to a whopping £4266 for a typical household in January - or £355 a month – meaning millions of people are going to find themselves seriously stretched unless significant financial support is offered up.
There are other experts – including energy consultancy Auxilione - who have suggested bills could soar to more than £5000 next April.
Of course, the people who are realising the extent and urgency of this situation and speaking about it are not in the Government.
From Martin Lewis to Gordon Brown, here’s a round-up of the main commentary around the energy bill crisis over the past 24 hours...
Martin Lewis – “This is a national crisis”
Consumer expert Martin Lewis came out on Wednesday and said the UK Government needs to double its support to make up for the huge rise in energy bills after a survey by Uswitch suggested almost a quarter of households owe £206 on average.
He warned the situation was turning into a “national crisis” on the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With bills set to rise to £4266 in January, Lewis outlined on Good Morning Britain that this is 45% of the full new state pension and a bigger proportion of the old state pension.
He then fumed at the Government’s suggestion little could be done about it until Boris Johnson’s successor – Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak - is appointed.
Lewis said: “What a load of bull. That’s complete bull.
“In May, when the Government was facing political problems due to Boris Johnson, they were planning to make announcements on energy in July and August.
“That was brought forward in May and the mechanism for bringing it forward in May is they asked Ofgem to publish forward guidance of what the price cap would be and they were therefore able to crystalise what was happening and they made the announcements of the up to £1200 available for the poorest homes.
“There is absolutely nothing stopping the Government doing that now.”
Gordon Brown – the former prime minister talks policy
While Lewis has laid out plain and simple the scale of the crisis we are facing, Brown then turned up the dial on the pressure cooker and began to fire out policy ideas. He insisted decisions must be made within days, stressing “time and tide wait for no one”.
Writing for the Guardian, he made a few suggestions about what moves the UK Government could be making. They were:
- The energy price cap should be cancelled and the government should negotiate new lower prices with companies. Brown said the Government should “pause any further increase in the cap” and then negotiate separate company agreements to keep prices down. He wants this done before the official new cap announcement on August 26.
- For those companies that cannot offer lower bills, these should be temporarily brought back into public ownership. Brown compared the situation to the 2009 banking crisis where some banks were temporarily nationalised to protect consumers.
- Before taking that step, Brown suggested the Government could offer guaranteed loans and equity financing but “if this fails then, as a last resort, operate their essential services from the public sector until the crisis is over”
- Brown said spending should be paid in “watertight windfall tax” on oil and gas and a new tax on the high levels of city bonuses which Brown claimed were pushing up wage inflation. He said these measures could raise £15 billion, enough to give eight million low-income families just under £2000 each.
The debate around extending the windfall tax …
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold a crunch meeting on Thursday with energy firms, but whether introducing a bigger windfall tax on companies is on the table or not is questionable.
The pair will ask gas and electricity company executives to submit a breakdown of expected profits and payouts as well as investment plans for the next three years.
But Truss and Kwarteng have said they don’t support the idea of a windfall tax and multiple government sources have suggested discussions may not centre around this, even though the Treasury is allegedly keen to keep extending it as an option.
A business department source has also cast doubt on whether Zahawi “has the authority” to suggest a windfall tax could be imposed given no policy decisions are being taken before a new prime minister is in place.
Companies invited to Thursday’s meeting are expected to include the owner of British Gas, Centrica, as well as RWE, E.ON, SSE and National Grid.
