What are the opposition proposing?
The Labour Party have urged the government to go further, by scrapping the 5% VAT on Energy Bills, implementing a one-off windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies, and expanding the Warm Home Discount even further.
However, in January, Conservative MPs voted down a Labour motion to scrap VAT on Energy Bills – this despite the fact that Boris Johnson himself endorsed scrapping VAT on energy bills during the 2016 Brexit campaign.
And, more recently, the Prime Minister rejected the idea of a windfall tax, claiming that, if one were implemented, fossil fuel firms would simply “put their prices up yet higher”, causing even higher energy bills for customers.
Labour claim that all three of their measures would cut around £200 off a typical household energy bill in a year.
Yet, even if Labour’s ideas were to be implemented and combined with the government’s policies, the average UK household would still find themselves around £500 a year down in the longer term.
