Families left with bill for energy bungling

THE huge hike in energy bills is the latest illustration of a cost of living crisis that is heaping enormous pressure on household finances. For months, ministers have known that this juggernaut was hurtling towards us – but appeared to take negligible preemptive action.

With the vulnerable and elderly facing agonising decisions between heating and eating, they were finally compelled to act yesterday. Ofgem raised the energy price cap, meaning that typical household electricity and gas bills will soar by £693 per year from April, or £708 for those on prepayment meters.

Truly, it was Black Thursday for families who had hoped for a period of stability emerging from the pandemic – and are now faced with a budgeting nightmare.

Rishi Sunak’s intervention, while welcome, will provide only limited help to those struggling to keep their homes heated.

And the discount is really a loan, to be paid back in instalments, meaning that effectively he’s taking our money to give it back to us.

We are now paying the price of the failure of governments on both sides of the Border to plan for future energy needs in favour of renewables, which require huge subsidies from the bill-payers now facing a massive leap in their monthly or quarterly payments.

As Alex Brummer writes in today’s Mail, our leaders, ‘with their short-term thinking and appallingly bad forecasting, have failed us all’.

By bungling its energy policy, Britain has left itself especially vulnerable to unexpected shocks. We sit on top of an energy goldmine. We have vast unexploited reserves of oil, gas and shale. And we had the opportunity, years ago, to expand nuclear power.

But hypnotised by the apocalyptic alarmism of climate activists, our politicians have pursued an aggressive green agenda and criminally shunned these abundant power sources.

It means we are left at the mercy of unreliable renewables and importing highpriced energy from abroad to stop the lights going out.

Meanwhile, the rise in interest rates, rocketing inflation and an imminent increase in national insurance represent a further hammer blow for millions of Scots.

Scotland will benefit from an additional £290million of funding to help ease the burden – the result of the council tax cut announced by Mr Sunak for households south of the Border.

The First Minister assured us that every penny would go towards supporting Scots as the cost of living continues to soar.

But her own Government’s incoherent energy policies – eschewing oil and gas in favour of a costly green drive – are fuelling the disaster.

Short-term fixes can’t paper over the cracks of political failures that are about to cause financial misery for thousands of hardworking families.