Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has dismissed reports of a boiler levy aimed at reducing energy bills and heating homes as “absolute nonsense”. He promised that the Government’s warm homes plan would be unveiled “soon”.
Conservative shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho expressed concerns about billpayers’ ability to afford heating and electricity during January’s cold spell.
Addressing the Commons, Ms Coutinho said: “It’s freezing cold outside and people are worried about their energy bills, yet on top of all the other costs he’s lumped on people’s bills, it’s reported that he’s about to tax people with gas boilers to pay for people with heat pumps. So, can he definitively rule out for the rest of this Parliament no new taxes on people heating their homes?”.
Last month, The Times reported that ministers were contemplating a £30 levy on gas bills to reduce electricity costs, but would prevent overall gas bills from increasing by eliminating a green levy elsewhere.
“I can absolutely rule out that we’re going to introduce new levies into the energy system in the warm homes plan – absolutely,” Mr Miliband responded. “These reports are complete nonsense.
“And I can tell her what we are going to do in the warm homes plan, and that is to turn the page on a decade of their failure, because we’re going to invest where they didn’t.
“We have a plan where they didn’t. We’ll have proper oversight and regulation where they didn’t, and we will tackle the cost-of-living crisis they caused.”
In response to a subsequent question, Ms Coutinho suggested “the rumours are he’s pitching himself” as a potential successor to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
She added: “He didn’t rule out taxes on people heating their homes for this Parliament – he’s shutting down the North Sea, a disastrous EU energy deal, a secret deal with China, industry fleeing in its droves.”
In his reply, Mr Miliband assured MPs: “We will be investing in the warm homes plan which will come soon – £15 billion of public investment to help people cut their bills. Now, they can oppose it if they like, but I think this will be supported across the country, because they were an absolute failure on energy efficiency and all of that, and we’re going to succeed.”
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “It’s a relief to hear that recent media reports of a new levy on gas bills were not based in any reality. With around a fifth of fuel-poor homes suffering from high levels of carbon monoxide due in part to ageing gas boilers and the North Sea basin in geological decline and unable to provide enough gas to heat our homes from 2027, it’s clear we need to move away from gas as our main heating source in the long term.
“While bringing down electricity prices is key to this, there are plenty of other options the Secretary of State should consider before putting up gas bills. For example, we could see GB Energy invest in infrastructure, so some of these costs could be taken off bills.
“The government could reform how electricity pricing is set and reduce the impact of the role of energy market trading on prices. And the Treasury could step in and use the receipts from the Windfall Tax to wipe out the record levels of energy debt built up by households due to the profiteering by the energy industry during the crisis. These sorts of changes would deliver lower energy bills and a fairer energy system for everyone.”
