RECORD high energy bills are unlikely to fall for years despite ploughing millions into a new energy strategy, the Business Secretary admitted.
Kwasi Kwarteng said the blueprint would be “more of a three, four or five-year answer” and it would do little to help Brits struggling to keep the heating on now.
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Boris Johnson insisted his landmark strategy – which will see “nuclear coming home” – will never again allow tyrants like Putin to “blackmail” Britain with their gas and oil.
It came as a fresh report forecast that the energy price cap could rise another 75 per cent in October to an incredible £3,500 if the war in Ukraine continues to squeeze the world’s supplies.
The PM’s plans for more homegrown wind, nuclear, solar and hydrogen power will likely take at least two years to filter through to the grid, where they then have an impact on prices.
Mr Johnson said energy bills had been going up around the world and “absolutely soared” after the invasion of Ukraine.
He stressed: “We just can’t carry on like this.”
But the plans to build a string of new nuclear reactors and plants will add at least an extra £36 a year to household bills in the meantime.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey blasted: “People are facing eye-watering hikes to energy bills and are looking to the government for urgent help now.”
And Labour MP Darren Jones added: “Energy security means being able to turn the heating or electricity on knowing you can afford to pay the bill.”
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But a Government source insisted: “That’s a small price to pay for energy independence.”
Speaking on a visit to Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, the PM said: “This (energy strategy) is about tackling the mistakes of the past and making sure that we are set well for the future and we are never again subject to the vagaries of the global oil and gas prices and we can’t be subject to blackmail, as it were, from people such as Vladimir Putin, we have energy security here in the UK.”
He admitted that onshore wind farms were “controversial” because of their visual impact, saying new sites “will have a very high bar to clear” and would have to “reward” local residents with cheaper energy.
MPs on the backbench 1922 Committee on Beis (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) urged ministers to promise planning consent would require the support of a majority of residents in a local referendum.
Meanwhile, households are set for a huge hit to their cost of living of up to £1,300 this year, according to the latest UK economic outlook from PwC.
And it may get worse with inflation topping an eye-watering 11 per cent if the Russian invasion continues, it warned.
Energy bills are likely to soar again in the autumn thanks to an “economic escalation scenario” in Ukraine, they predicted.
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