Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says he’s ‘prepared to do what it takes’ when requested about future power help
The chancellor has stated he “is willing to do what it takes” and enhance help for households if power payments rise once more this autumn.
Sky’s economics and information editor Ed Conway requested the chancellor if he may assure he would step in if power payments begin rising once more.
“All I can say is that I think I’ve demonstrated in the autumn statement, and the spring budget where I extended the energy price guarantee for another three months, funded in part by a windfall tax on the oil companies, that we are willing to do what it takes,” Mr Hunt stated.
“We are very aware of the pressures that families are facing, and we want to do what we can to support them”, he stated.
But, he added they weren’t anticipating a serious enhance in Ofgem’s power worth cap, which today brought average bills to £2,074 a year, down £426 a 12 months from the earlier cap and is reviewed each three months.
When requested if the federal government would step in, if payments hypothetically reached £3,000 a 12 months, the chancellor stated he was not anticipating these sorts will increase.
“I don’t want to predict today what might happen to energy prices at the moment”, he stated. “I don’t have a crystal ball.”
Wholesale fuel costs have come down, enabling the power regulator to convey down the worth cap, however the way forward for costs is unknown.
Ofgem’s chief govt on Thursday informed MPs it’s “very, very hard” to foretell future power costs.
“Every prediction on the market has turned out to be substantially wrong,” Jonathan Brearley stated on the Public Accounts Committee.
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His “best guess” is costs will proceed to return down however stated it was solely a guess.
Mr Brearley added he hopes costs proceed to fall however stated that it solely takes one international occasion to convey costs up once more.
Energy costs rose sharply within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Western international locations rushed to stop use of Russian fuel and discover different sources.
Oil and fuel costs had already been rising as financial exercise restarted after pandemic-era lockdowns.
The authorities’s energy worth assure is about to end on 1 July. It limits the quantity suppliers can cost per unit of power used and was utilized all through the autumn and winter.
No state help is deliberate from July.