‘Broken promises’: Burnham under fire on cost-of-living plans as energy bills set to surge
Andy Burnham is facing pressure over his commitment to tackle the cost-of-living crisis as energy bills are set to jump again.
Opposition figures have accused the Prime Minister of breaking Labour’s pledge to cut household energy bills, with one Tory figure dubbing the price hike “outrageous”.
The price cap on bills is set to rise by four per cent from October to an average bill of £1,723 per year, the energy watchdog Ofgem said on Wednesday.
Burnham said that the looming rise in energy costs will be “difficult” for households and conceded that his move to scrap VAT from electricity bills will not be enough to halt rising prices.
“We know the price cap will have an impact, but it is what we can do right now. We’ll continue to look as we go forward at how we get energy prices down in the long term, and that’s what we need to do too,” he told reporters.
Burnham has staked much of his political reputation on tackling the cost of living head-on, and has centred the first few weeks of his premiership on measures aimed to give “breathing space” to households struggling to make ends meet.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused the Prime Minister of failing to deliver on these promises.
She said: “Labour promised to cut energy bills by £300, but they have gone up by nearly £400 instead.
“Our cheap power plan would cut energy bills for households and businesses by scrapping Government taxes and levies on bills, and it wouldn’t cost the taxpayer a penny. We have to put cheap energy first.”
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins described the bills hike as “outrageous,” accusing the government of “broken promises”.
“The winter fuel allowance was so important to so many of my constituents, because many of them used that payment in order to be able to fill their heating oil tanks.
“But instead now we have rising bills under this government, and my worry is not only will households suffer, people at home suffer with this,” she told GB News.
October’s hike in bills comes after Ofgem lifted its price cap by 13 per cent in July. The autumn’s four per cent rise is a sign of worse to come, analysts warned.
The cap is tipped to rise by a further nine per cent to £1,872 per year from January as high international gas prices show little sign of abating, according to Cornwall Insight.
Labour could cut policy costs
Energy bills are set to continue their march, rising by £264 by 2035 according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The consultancy called on Labour to cut renewable energy levies from household bills and connect more data centres to the grid to drive demand and bring down prices.
Brent crude prices – the international benchmark for oil – have surged as high as $110 per barrel since the US and Israel first launched strikes on Iran.
Though prices have fallen to around $85 per barrel this week amid signs that peace negotiations are progressing, they remain far above January’s $60 per barrel level.
Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has hinted that the government could strip so-called policy costs from energy bills to bring down the burden on households.
She said: “Energy is an everyday essential and it needs to be affordable for everyone, which is why we have cut VAT on electricity bills from October, to give families some breathing space.
“This has limited the rise in the price cap and follows the £150 in costs we removed from bills earlier this year, and we will keep looking at what more we can do to protect families from unaffordable bills.”