We know all about climate change deniers; perhaps it is time we turned our attention to energy bill deniers. This morning Ofgem announced that its cap on energy prices will rise by 4 per cent in October, taking the average household dual fuel bill to £1,723 a year. This is £60 higher than it is at present, wiping out the £44 saved by the temporary removal of VAT from fuel bills announced by Andy Burnham last month.
Far from Labour’s net zero policies saving us £300 a year, as Ed Miliband insisted they would during the general election campaign two years ago, average bills are currently up £150 on the level they were when Labour took office. And yet still government ministers continue to insist that their net zero policies are helping to bring down prices. According to Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, ‘one of the problems we’ve got is that we are very exposed to global fossil fuel markets that we have no control over’. The answer, she insisted, is yet more renewable energy.
It is true, of course, that inflation in energy bills this year is largely down to events in the Middle East which have squeezed supplies: around a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquified natural gas supplies used to pass through the now-obstructed Strait of Hormuz. This is to some extent being alleviated by the construction of pipelines to the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia, bypassing the Strait, although it will still be some months until oil and gas prices subside.
