The substance Energy price cap, new council homes and student loan help

Although the farce of Theresa May’s speech caught the attention, in the substance of her words was a vow to “dedicate my Premiership” to restoring people’s hope with an energy price cap and plans for tens of thousands of new council homes.

The Prime Minister revived proposals to crack down on “rip-off ” energy bills and pledged to “always take on monopolies and vested interests when they are holding people back”.

She suggested energy giants were guilty of hiking bills for customers who do not shop around for a better deal in comments which caused a slide in the value of energy shares.

She also outlined plans to introduce an opt-out system for organ donation, a review of mental health services to eradicate discrimination, and help for students by increasing the threshold at which graduates pay back their loans to £25,000.

Mrs May also announced a £2 billion funding boost for affordable housing which will help build 25,000 new council homes over the next five years.

The Prime Minister said she would “take personal charge” of “getting government back into the business of building houses” and to create “a new generation of council houses to help fix our broken housing market”.

She told house builders that the Government will ensure that land is available for homes but in return they needed to do their “duty” and “build the homes our country needs”.