Emergency summit over energy crisis

BUSINESS Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will hold an emergency summit with energy bosses tomorrow to thrash out a plan to fix Britain’s escalating fuel crisis.

A record spike in global gas prices has led to fears energy bills will soar this winter, leading to fuel and food shortages.

Kwarteng and Greg Hands, the new Energy Minister, will tomorrow ask 20 of Britain’s biggest energy companies to help stop bills soaring over the winter.

Firms invited to the 90-minute roundtable include National Grid, energy suppliers Centrica, Ovo and Bulb, and regulator Ofgem. Kwarteng spent yesterday calling the firms individually to discuss the impact of high gas prices.

One energy boss said Ministers could cut bills by around £150 per year if they axed the ‘green taxes’ on electricity, which make up around 23 per cent of their total.

Russian energy giant Gazprom has been accused of hiking gas prices to undermine Britain and the EU’s recovery from Covid.

But last night Kwarteng insisted Britain is not dependent on Russian oil and gas. He said: ‘Our largest single source of energy is from domestic production and the majority of imports come from reliable suppliers such as Norway.’