Truss plans energy bill freeze
Liz Truss is expected to freeze energy bills for every household and business in the UK in one of her first acts as prime minister.
Truss, who was to be appointed by the Queen overnight, is ready to cap the cost of gas used for electricity and heating. This would effectively commit the taxpayer to paying Britain’s energy bills beyond a certain level to stop widespread hardship and bankruptcies.
Pubs and restaurants have said they face financial ruin because they have no protection from soaring energy prices. Some businesses face a seven-fold increase.
Energy bills for households are capped at £1971 (NZ$3700) a year, rising to £3549 as of October 1. The cap is due to be revised in January and some analysts predict that it will then pass £5000.
Allies of Truss said yesterday that the intervention would be ‘‘big and bold’’ and ‘‘get money to everyone’’, adding that it could cost as much as £90 billion.
Truss, 47, who became foreign secretary last September, takes office as Britain’s 56th prime minister in some of the most challenging circumstances facing any of her peacetime predecessors, with steeply rising energy prices and inflation. She was to fly to Balmoral to be formally appointed after a narrower-thanexpected victory over Rishi Sunak, 42, the former chancellor. She is due to make a statement outside No 10 afterwards and then appoint her cabinet. Tomorrow she will host prime minister’s questions and on Friday she will reveal her plans to help with energy bills.
Early next week Therese Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, who is likely to be appointed health secretary and deputy prime minister, is expected to announce plans to tackle the crisis in the NHS this winter. A fiscal event to reverse the national insurance rise and cancel planned increases in corporation tax will be held within the next three weeks.
Yesterday Truss was revealed to have won the Tory leadership contest by 57% to 43%, the lowest margin of victory since Conservative Party members were given the final vote in 2001. A Yougov poll on August 2 had Truss on 69% to Sunak’s 31.
In her acceptance speech at the QEII conference centre in central London, she paid tribute to her ‘‘friend’’ Boris Johnson, the outgoing prime minister, and promised to ‘‘deliver on the energy crisis’’ by helping people with their bills and tackling longterm supply issues.
She appeared to rule out an early election, vowing to lead the Conservatives to a ‘‘great’’ victory in 2024. ‘‘I campaigned as a Conservative and I will govern as a Conservative,’’ she said in her speech, citing ‘‘our beliefs in freedom, in the ability to control your own life, in low taxes, in personal responsibility’’. She said her government had ‘‘to show that we will deliver over the next two years’’, pledging: ‘‘We will deliver, we will deliver, we will deliver.’’