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Green taxes will hike up energy bills by almost £300 by 2020
Credit: By: John Ingham | Daily Express | Published: Mon, October 14, 2013 | www.express.co.uk ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
Controversial green taxes are to double over the next few years, slapping nearly £300 on electricity bills, according to official figures.
Critics say the policies are already costing jobs and driving firms to other countries without cutting pollution.
The report by the Department for Energy and Climate Change shows that green policies account for 17 per cent of the average household electricity bill today, but by 2020 this is expected to soar to 33 per cent.
In cash terms the cost of the taxes will rise from about £138 to £286.
The taxes include the Renewables Obligation which subsidises green energy such as wind farms, a tax on carbon emissions to encourage firms to use cleaner energy more efficiently and cash for the vulnerable to help pay for bills.
Other levies include the Energy Company Obligation making energy firms spend £1.1billion over the next two years to make homes energy efficient.
The Coalition faces a battle over energy policies. Prime Minister David Cameron has hinted at cuts to green subsidies while Chancellor George Osborne has made it clear that he does not want them to make Britain uncompetitive. But Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable says that axing green policies would be “short-sighted and foolish”.
TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive Matthew Sinclair, said: “Many families are going to struggle to pay their energy bills this winter, but instead of helping, politicians are adding to the problem with expensive green taxes.
“Rather than meddle in the market even more and risk the lights going out, the Government should scrap useless energy policies that make it much harder for people to make ends meet.”
Meanwhile Dr Benny Peiser, the director of Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation warned that the DECC figures are “very conservative and are likely to be much higher”.
“This is already costing jobs. Energy intensive manufacturing firms are telling the Government they need subsidies or they will not survive. Taxpayers face having to sponsor not just renewable energy but industry.”
The DECC says energy efficiency programmes will help cut bills. “It’s the global gas price, not green subsidies, that has primarily been pushing up energy bills,” said a spokesman.
“Sixty per cent of the increase in household energy bills between 2010 and 2012 was caused by this. Investing in home-grown alternatives is the only sure fire way of insulating our economy and bill payers from this volatility. In any case, our household energy efficiency policies are on average more than offsetting the costs of clean energy.”
In another blow to hard-pressed families, Britain’s largest water company Thames Water plans to raise prices by up to 40 per cent by 2020.
Thames, which charged customers an average £354 a year in 2013-14, said its bills were among the lowest in the country and it would be spending £1billion a year on infrastructure between 2015 and 2020.
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