Household bills to rise under Labour for second year running
Energy regulator Ofgem has announced that the price of gas and electricity will rise by 2%, despite Labour’s major promise at the General Election to cut bills. Scottish Greens MSP Patrick Harvie said Labour “are ignoring the most obvious immediate ways to cut bills”.
From October, households using the average amount of energy will pay £1,755 a year, more than most analysts had predicted. It comes at a time when the cost of food and drink has rapidly risen, causing many families to struggle, even before the rise in household energy bills.
Patrick said:
“When Labour promised to cut your bills, they obviously had their fingers crossed behind their back, because so far we’ve seen them ignore the most obvious ways to cut bills. All that has happened since Labour took power is that the ultra-rich executives of fossil fuel companies have laughed their way to the bank, toasting their eye-watering profits.
“Households and families across our country are being plunged into poverty by a broken energy market. Scotland has renewable resources that any country would envy, but bill payers are not seeing the benefit of them.
“We urgently need to break the link between global gas prices and household bills. Renewables are the cheapest energy to generate, and this would make them cheap to use, which is both fairer and greener.
“There's more the UK should be doing to drive public and community ownership of our cheap, clean renewable energy too, bringing further economic benefits to communities.
“Renewables have helped cut the cost of generating electricity; this should be reflected in household bills, but until the link between gas prices and household bills is cut, the only people benefiting are the ultra-rich.
“Scottish Greens are fighting to cut household bills for everyone, and secure our future as an energy superpower with renewables. At next May’s election, every vote for the Scottish Greens is a vote to make our energy system work for us all, not for the ultra-rich oil and gas executives.”