The junking of Trussonomics was almost absolute. Even the energy price guarantee, the one policy the sinking prime minister had tried to trumpet in her short and painful press conference at the end of last week, is being canned. The guarantee for households will now expire next April, to be replaced by, well, new chancellor Jeremy Hunt didn’t say. There will be a Treasury-led review to design a cheaper scheme that ensures “enough support for those in need”.
The broad thinking behind Hunt’s new approach should not be contentious. The principle is correct. It never made economic sense to freeze energy prices for everyone, higher-earners and millionaires included – or, at least not for two years. Labour, remember, only backed a universal freeze for six months, probably sensing the danger in a “blank cheque” approach when nobody can be confident of where gas prices will stand in the winter of 2023-24.
