An expansion of the warm home discount will mean that anyone claiming means-tested benefits will automatically get a £150 discount on their energy bills over the winter.
The Energy Secretary has promised to cut bills across the board by rolling out renewable energy largely sourced in the UK, rather than relying on imports of oil and gas.
He told The i Paper: “Families up and down the country are struggling with energy bills that are just too high. This Government is relentless in our pursuit of bringing down bills for good.
“Three years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, geopolitical events continue to remind us how important that is.
Ed Miliband insisted that ramping up green energy will save money (Photo: Paul Campbell/PA Wire)
The ex-Labour leader added: “Today marks an important step forward, but we know there is more to do.
Miliband has faced questions over his position with some in his own party arguing that he is alienating swing voters.
6.1 million households to get the benefit
The warm home discount is a UK-wide scheme which previously applied to benefits claimants if they were pensioners or had particularly high heating costs.
The discount comes in the form of a one-off £150 credit applied to bills by suppliers at some point over the winter.
The policy change comes after the Government U-turned on a planned cut to the separate winter fuel payment, which will now go to all pensioners with an income of less than £350 and takes the form of a direct cash grant rather than a discount to bills.
Andrew Bowie, the Conservatives’ shadow Energy Secretary, said: “Labour promised to cut everyone’s energy bills by £300, but they have increased by £280 and are forecast to keep going up. Energy bills need to come down, but this announcement will cut bills for just a quarter of households whilst increasing them for everyone else.”
The fight over net zero
The pledge to hit net-zero carbon emissions in the UK by 2050 has been fiercely controversial, although polls suggest it is broadly supported by most voters.
The current Government says that the green transition is an opportunity to create jobs in Britain while also contributing to the global fight against climate change.
But the Conservatives, who originally wrote net zero into law, have now come out against the target, arguing it is unachievable and will anyway make only a small dent in the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide.
When Ed Miliband became Energy Secretary last year – having occupied the same role in the last Labour administration under Gordon Brown – he made another contentious promise, saying that he would remove fossil fuels from the country’s electricity grid by 2030.
Some experts question whether this is realistic and doubt that it will cut the cost of energy, as Miliband claims, because renewable power cannot be turned on and off at will in the same way as oil and gas.
But he insists the move will make bills cheaper because they will no longer be mainly determined by the wholesale price of gas, which shot up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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