PMQs: Truss shuts down Blackford over windfall tax

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Ms Truss unveiled in the House of Commons on Thursday a huge plan for the energy price cap to be frozen at £2,500 for two years. This may have brought a sigh of relief for millions of Britons who were bracing for fuel poverty as industry regulator Ofgem’s £3,549 price cap was set to come into effect from October.

Ms Truss said in the Commons: “This Guarantee – which includes a temporary suspension of green levies – means that from 1st October a typical household will pay no more than £2,500 per year for each of the next two years, while we get the energy market back on track.

“This will save a typical household £1,000 a year. It comes in addition to the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme.

“This Guarantee supersedes the Ofgem price cap, and has been agreed with energy retailers.”

Mike Foster, head of the Energy and Utility Alliance, said that while this means the “short-term crisis is averted”, he urged Ms Truss to “now deliver on our long-term needs”.

He said: “For weeks we have been calling for the Government bazooka, not peashooter, to help consumers. Today we saw it deployed. It will bring much needed relief to households up and down the land.”

But Mr Foster warned: “While the politicians debate the best way of financing the package, the new PM and her team should start to deliver on the longer term needs of the country. In the current economic climate and with talk of electricity blackouts this winter unless demand is reduced, we need to pause the headlong rush to rip out gas boilers and replace them with £13,000 heat pumps.”

He added: “Instead, the new PM needs to accelerate plans for the hydrogen economy and start to deliver on the many promises her predecessor made but didn’t act on. Starting with the roll-out of hydrogen-ready boilers, preparing homes for net zero and backing it up with confirmation that hydrogen blending will indeed get the go ahead next year.”

But Ms Truss did signal a commitment to a longer-term plan, raising the point that Britain remains vulnerable to volatile gas markets, which have been spiralling out of control at the mercy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She said: “Energy policy over the past decades has not focused enough on securing supply.”

To address this, Ms Truss is “launching a new licensing round” for North Sea oil and gas drilling, and expects “100 new licences being awarded”.

But she also hopes to “speed up our deployment of all clean and renewable technologies”.

DON’T MISS 
Energy lifeline as Rees-Mogg to hand Brits major North Sea boost [REVEAL]
Royal Navy pulls rug from under Putin in Black Sea with undersea drone [REPORT] 
Heat pumps: Thousands flock to install boiler alternative [INSIGHT] 

She said this includes “hydrogen, solar, carbon capture and storage, and wind… where we are already the world leader in offshore generation”.

Mr Foster said: “Hydrogen offers the much-needed relief from Putin’s stranglehold on natural gas. We can generate it from our wind turbines. We can make it from our natural gas, storing the carbon under our shores.

“We can be independent for our energy needs. Our new PM can deliver on that vision.”

Source: Read Full Article