The solution to the UK’s energy crisis is not freezing the price cap. The poorest folk in Britain can be helped via the benefits system, that’s what it’s for. Benefits have been cut by 75% over the last decade, that’s why people on fixed incomes can’t pay their bills. How about the workers? Lowering taxes and settling wage demands will ease the burden on those who work for a living. How can we help millionaires? They don’t need help, they’ve got a ton of cash already. We do need to support the small business sector because they have no energy price cap and hundreds of thousands are ready to throw the towel in. Maybe we could increase taxes on the richest folk to solve the problems of the poorest? Maybe too radical?
But, if we freeze the energy price cap, we simply gift hundreds of £billions from the taxpayer to the energy companies and we end up with 29p per KWh for electric and 7p per KWh for gas which for many is unaffordable. The hundreds of £billions we gift to the energy companies will have to be paid for by raising taxes, or loading the energy bills of consumers with extra levies to pay down the debt. That could mean an extra £400 per household energy bill per year and that is unacceptable. I’ve just received a tweet from a chap who has has fourteen solar panels installed on his house. Since April they have generated an average 17KWh per day and his daily consumption is around 8KWh. THAT is the solution to our energy crisis, not paying fossil fuel energy companies to produce more. De-centralise energy provision and take demand from the grid so that wholesale prices fall. What do you think?