Rachel Reeves removed green levies from energy bills, moving the cost into general taxation – i.e. rendering it invisible to ordinary bill-payers. Along with grid network charges, they were the main measure of the efficiency and profitability of the aging, creaking electricity grid.
This will cut energy bills for families by £150 from April, but its pure political theatre – watch out for Ed Miliband claiming it as part of his “£350 a year reduction in bills” at the next election.
Labour’s heart is in the right place, but they are going about it completely wrong. Instead of increasing energy resilience by building small-scale local energy they have increased reliance on the grid by rushing through large-scale projects against massive local opposition. Projects like Holsworthy Beacon in Devon – 2500 acres of solar farm – could become the poll tax riots of the Starmer era.
Ms Reeves: “The Conservatives’ ECO scheme was presented as a plan to tackle fuel poverty. It costs households £1.7 billion a year on their bills and for 97 per cent of families in fuel poverty, the scheme has cost them more than it has saved. It is a failed scheme.
“So I am scrapping that scheme, along with taking other legacy costs off bills. And a result I can tell you today that, for every family, we are keeping our promise to get energy bills down and cut the cost of living with £150 cut from the average household energy bill from April.
“Money off bills, and in the pockets of working people. That is my choice. Not to neglect Britain’s energy security, like the Tories did, not to leave working families to bear the brunt of high prices, like the Tories did, but to get energy costs down now and in the years to come. That is the Labour choice.”
What Ms Reeves has done today will assist the Big Energy incumbents, keep local micro-power down, and be very bad for UK energy security
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