Ed Miliband aides ‘demand power firms credit score Labour for £150 reduce to payments’… though prices are set to RISE
The Government is pleading with energy companies to give ministers credit for a drop in energy bills later this year, it has been revealed.
Staff at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), headed by Ed Miliband, are said to have held calls with firms urging them to give recognition to the Government.
They are reported to have urged energy providers to send emails to customers or add details of the reduction to bills.
Experts have forecast energy bills will fall when the energy price cap is next updated in April following a drop in wholesale prices and action by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
At her Budget in November, Ms Reeves said £150 would be cut from the average household bill from April by scrapping some green levies.
But it has been claimed much of this saving will be wiped out by new energy levies to fund upgrades to Britain’s power grid and maintenance of gas pipelines.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, said in December that £108 will be added to bills by 2031 to help pay for a £28bn investment in the UK’s energy network.
A separate analysis found that, overall, households face paying an extra £116 a year by the end of the decade.
Staff at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), headed by Ed Miliband, are said to have held calls with firms urging them to give recognition to the Government.
A source at a major energy company told The Times how DESNZ was imploring companies to help ministers ‘take the credit’ for the cut in bills this April.
‘They were asking us to email customers to tell them about the wonderful bill reduction that’s all thanks to the Government,’ they said.
‘Yet we all know that bills are going to rise over the course of the parliament because of decisions that ministers have made.’
Another industry source said: ‘They made it clear that, when we communicated to our customers about the April price drop we say that it is because of the wonderful Government.
‘But there was quite a bit of pushback, not least because this mythical £150 figure is simply an average and won’t apply to all bill payers.
‘Clearly energy companies will need to communicate to their customers about what is happening to their bills in April, but exactly how we do that is quite complicated.’
Sources close to Mr Miliband told the newspaper that describing the bill cut as ‘mythical’ was ‘nonsense’.
They said the calls were about the ‘communications of the £150, not the substance of it’, and that energy bosses had lined up to welcome the announcement.
A DESNZ spokesperson said: ‘This is nonsense – families will see an average of £150 in costs off their bill this April thanks to Government action, which has been welcomed by Martin Lewis and Citizens Advice.
‘We have made it clear to suppliers that every penny of those savings should be passed on to all households.’
Mr Lewis, the consumer finance expert, last week told ITV that Ms Reeves’ promise of a £150 cut to energy bills in April was ‘mostly an actual reality’.
‘I say mostly because, to be fair, they did say typically £150 everything else remaining equal,’ he added.
‘Of course energy bills they move all the time, so everything else does not remain equal.’
He continued: ‘The way it’s being done is £90 of that is the renewable obligation that’s on energy bills is being shifted to general taxation.
‘It will be paid through general taxation, so it’s not going away. And then the getting rid of most of the ECO (Energy Company Obligation) scheme… that’s the other £60.’
