UK Labour urged to take action to cut energy bills
High energy bills are punishing households and families and baking in high rates of inflation for years to come, say the Scottish Greens.
The Scottish Greens have called for UK Labour to listen to climate experts, take urgent action to fix the broken energy market, and end the artificial high price for clean green electricity, which is cheap to generate but expensive to consume.
This comes following the publication of new monthly figures from the Office for National Statistics showing that inflation has jumped to 3.5% in April, the highest level since February last year.
The ONS has revealed that big increases in utility bills - including electricity and gas bills - have impacted inflation, after changes to the Ofgem energy price cap earlier this year sent April rates soaring.
Independent climate advisors have advised that the UK Government must act urgently to make electricity cheaper, through rebalancing prices to remove policy levies from electricity bills.
The Scottish Greens’ climate spokesperson, Patrick Harvie, said:
“At a time when so many are already struggling to make ends meet, households and families across our country are now facing the highest rates of inflation since February last year.
“Labour promised to make energy bills cheaper, but they have only gone up. Keir Starmer and his colleagues must urgently step in to make sure that households get the benefit of the low price of renewable energy, to help get inflation under control.
“This isn’t just about the price cap. Climate experts are clear - out-of-date policy levies on electricity bills are stopping costs from coming down for consumers, and that’s a barrier to people switching away from fossil fuels for heat and transport. So even though home-grown renewable energy is very cheap to generate, that’s not being reflected in the bills people are paying.
“We desperately need to fix the broken energy market that is plunging people into poverty all while keeping our reliance on climate-wrecking fossil fuels.”