Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Liz Truss planning £2,500 energy bills freeze

06 Sep 2022 4 minute read
Queen Elizabeth welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral. Photo Jane Barlow PA Images

The new Prime Minister, who took office after meeting the Queen in Balmoral, is thought to be planning to freeze bills at around the £2,500 mark – some £500 higher than current levels but more than £1,000 below next month’s cap.

Details have not yet been finalised, but the plan is expected to be funded through general taxation or increased borrowing rather than paid for in future energy bills.

Ms Truss became the UK’s third female Prime Minister after meeting the Queen at her Scottish estate.

The handover of power from Boris Johnson took place at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace because of the 96 year-old monarch’s mobility problems, with Ms Truss becoming the Queen’s 15th prime minister.

Ms Truss, who won the Tory leadership on Monday, will travel to Westminster for a TV address from Downing Street later on Tuesday afternoon.

Chancellor

She is also putting together her Cabinet with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng expected to take the key post of chancellor.

But Nadine Dorries turned down the offer to stay on as Culture Secretary, while former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that he had also rejected a Cabinet post.

Ms Truss will face her first session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons on Wednesday and could set out her energy package on Thursday.

A Government source confirmed a Times report that the energy freeze will be at around the £2,500 mark, although an insider in the Truss camp said “nothing is finalised yet”.

The plan is based on the current £1,971 energy price cap plus the £400 universal handout announced under Mr Johnson’s government.

Help is also expected for business customers struggling with soaring bills which are not covered by the existing energy price cap in England, Scotland and Wales.

Endure

In his farewell speech before leaving office, Mr Johnson said: “I know that Liz Truss and this compassionate Conservative government will do everything we can to get people through this crisis and this country will endure it and we will win.”

His speech included a plea for the Tory party to unite behind his successor, but he could not conceal his bitterness at the way he was ousted.

He suggested he would now slip into political obscurity, although a reference to Roman statesman Cincinnatus fuelled speculation he could consider a comeback.

Mr Johnson said “I will be offering this government nothing but my most fervent support”, calling for Tories to back the new leader at a “tough time for the economy”.

Watched by wife Carrie Johnson, he added that if the couple’s dog Dilyn and Larry the No 10 cat can “put behind them their occasional difficulties”, then “so can the Conservative Party”.

But in a sign of lingering resentment at the manner in which he was forced out, Mr Johnson said that “the baton will be handed over in what has unexpectedly turned out to be a relay race. They changed the rules halfway through but never mind that now”.

He said his career was now like a booster rocket “that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific”.

Mr Johnson declared “like Cincinnatus, I am returning to my plough” – before entering No 10, an ambitious Mr Johnson had frequently said he would serve as prime minister if he was “called from my plough”.

Tax payers

Opposition politicians called for oil and gas firms to pay for the freeze in bills, rather than letting taxpayers pick up the tab.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Liz Truss spent weeks during this summer leadership contest leaving families and pensioners worried and in limbo by refusing to set out her plans to tackle soaring energy bills.

“Now she seems set to make our children pick up the tab for this mess, while letting oil and gas firms making record profits off the hook.”


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
hdavies15
hdavies15
1 year ago

Even the EU, that bunch of countries often painted as “softies” by Anglo Brit hardcases, are building up to setting a cap on energy prices. The early whispers about Lizzie’s first pass at the problem is that the cap will be a touch higher than the current level and won’t prevent the profiteers from making their extortionate profits as they will be funded by public funds ! At least it may arrest the fears spreading throughout the UK but it nevertheless leave a huge proportion of homes worrying about those bills. Already some of the extreme adherents of Darwinian market… Read more »

Peter Cuthbert
Peter Cuthbert
1 year ago
Reply to  hdavies15

Such nut cases, who see themselves as Market Fundamentalists, believe that one’s position in life reflects one’s value to the market. So if you are unemployed and lacking savings you are seen as worthless and thus should go away and die rather than be given handouts. However, even if you are as thick as the Duke of Westminster, the fact that you are loaded shows how valuable you are to society and therefore you need to be nurtured and supported (usually being called a ‘wealth creator’). Sadly, the worship of money, like most religions, is build on very shaky evidential… Read more »

Hogyn y Gogledd
Hogyn y Gogledd
1 year ago

I am still waiting to hear if domestic heating oil is included.

If not, it will be a huge blow to those who don’t live in towns and suburbs.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.