COST OF LIVING: HELP IS COMING
Minister tipped as new Chancellor tells MoS of ‘package of measures’ for families battling soaring bills
BRITAIN’S likely next Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, has promised families that ‘help is coming’ on the cost of living.
The Business Secretary said work was urgently under way on ‘the best package of measures’ so that the next Prime Minister would be able to ‘hit the ground running’ the moment they assume office.
The Liz Truss supporter also appeared to rule out a future windfall tax on energy companies, saying he would prioritise domestic energy production.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Mr Kwarteng said: ‘No country is immune from rising prices – least of all Britain. I understand the deep anxiety this is
‘Energy produced in Britain is by far the safest option’
causing. As winter approaches, millions of families will be concerned about how they are going to make ends meet.
‘But I want to reassure the British people that help is coming.’
His intervention – which indicates his likely approach to the looming economic and energy crisis should he go to No11 – came as: l Ofgem is expected to announce this week that the energy price cap will rise from £1,971 to £3,576 from October; l The cap is predicted to rise again to more than £6,000 a year from April – a fivefold increase in a year; l Energy firms ordered hundreds of thousands of prepayment meters as they prepared for families to default on bills in record numbers; l Ms Truss hinted that more help on bills was coming – and appeared to soften her previous opposition to one-off payments; l Boris Johnson’s allies said that the Privileges Committee hearing into his Partygate statements amounted to an attempt at impeachment; l Former Tory Party chairman Amanda Milling became the latest MP to back Ms Truss for the Tory leadership; l Jacob Rees-Mogg echoed the Foreign Secretary’s comments about British workers needing ‘more graft’.
Team Truss is putting together an emergency Budget, which, if she becomes PM, would aim to help Britain weather the extraordinary economic storm that could ruin many households and businesses.
The leadership hopeful has in recent days appeared reluctant to announce details of her energy package beyond revealing that she would scrap green levies and reverse a national insurance rise.
However, last night she hinted that more help for families struggling with their energy bills would be coming shortly – and appeared to row back on her previous refusal to consider one-off payments.
She told The Sun on Sunday that every Government ‘has to make sure life is affordable for people’ and that she was ‘looking across the board’ at help, including support for businesses, which do not benefit from the energy price cap.
But she doubled down on comments that she would help people in a ‘Conservative way’, adding that she would not ‘reach first for the handout’ before looking at the causes of soaring energy bills.
She said: ‘What I really object to is taking money off people in tax and then giving them the money back in benefits. That doesn’t make sense to me.’
Her rival, Rishi Sunak, has already said it is wrong to rule out direct support for households given pensioners and the vulnerable will not benefit from her current plans.
Mr Kwarteng, who lives on the same street as the Foreign Secretary in Greenwich, SouthEast London, is said to be Ms Truss’s pick for Chancellor.
The pair are old friends and ideological allies, having coauthored a 2012 book Britannia Unchained, which called for a smaller state.
Setting out his views yesterday, Mr Kwarteng appeared to rule out a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, which he described as ‘punitive’.
He also championed domestic energy production so the UK is no longer held to ransom by ‘rogue petrostates’.
‘We need to crack on with more nuclear power stations, back British-made small modular reactors, invest in cheap renewable energy like offshore wind, and lift the ban on shale gas extraction in England where there is local consent,’ he said.
‘We also need to maximise North Sea oil and gas production... I appreciate windfall taxes are sometimes popular. But popularity won’t keep the lights on.’ He added: ‘Energy produced in Britain is by far the safest option.’
In October, Mr Kwarteng is due to issue a new round of permits for oil fields in the North Sea, the first since 2020. Sources close to the Business Secretary said that the controversial Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk would receive full Government approval.
It sets the stage for a future disagreement within Team Truss over the estimated £20billion project, as some in the campaign are said to be angered by a Government decision to buy a stake in the project costing billions of pounds.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke is reported to have written to Boris Johnson and Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi about the move.
Mr Clarke, who may replace Mr Kwarteng at the Department for Business, is said to have warned them the decision would compromise the new PM’s ability to cut taxes or spend more on the cost of living, according to the Sunday Times.
Asked about her cost-of-living plans, sources said it was ‘hard to lean in at this stage’, adding: ‘Until you’re in the chair in the PM’s office and have looked at the books, it’s very hard to say where we’re going to land.’
They said the Government was working on ‘lots of things’ but cautioned they are likely to be ‘very, very expensive’.
Labour has proposed a freeze on the price cap, keeping it at £1,971 for at least six months, a policy that could cost £60billion – about the cost of furlough – for a year.
‘We need to crack on with nuclear stations’