Shielding UK households from fuel bills crisis ‘could cost £100bn’; Brent crude back over $100 – business live

Scottish Power chief proposes capping household energy costs at about £2,000 a year, ahead of Friday’s price rise announcement from Ofgem

Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, has criticised proposals for a blanket freeze on energy bills.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Sunak warned that high energy costs are a challenge that will be with us for some time – and said he would focus help on the poorest households.

We need to make sure that what we’re doing is not only affordable, but also isn’t going to make inflation worse.

At a time when we’re already borrowing an enormous amount of money, I think embarking on policies and programmes that add not just tens of billions, but tens and tens and tens and tens of billions of pounds on a permanent basis to our borrowing are risky.

That’s my track record on this, and as prime minister I would do exactly the same thing.

So far support is all focused on winter 2022/23, but current projections are for energy prices to be just as high, if not higher, next year.

The new prime minister will need to be ready to provide further support again. Offsetting the same proportion of bills next year would cost around £90bn. Given how long the crisis is expected to last, the government should also look at other measures to deal with the high energy bills, including investing in energy efficiency.

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8 months ago

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