What you need to know about Liz Truss’s Energy Price Guarantee:
It’s still a rise – it’s a 27% hike on the current, record-high rates we’re paying for gas and electricity. This is on top of the 54% price hike we already saw in April this year.
The government says it’s a “freeze” by counting the previously announced energy support scheme – but this is a flat, one-off amount for everyone no matter how much energy you need to use to heat your home. It’s not an 80% rise like Ofgem announced at the end of August, but the price we’re all paying for energy is going up and will be 96% higher than it was last winter. 7 million households will still be in fuel poverty, struggling to keep up with their bills and freezing in their homes unable to turn on the heating.
£2,500 isn’t an absolute cap on how much you can pay – it only limits the amount you can be charged per unit.
The £2,500 figure is an average estimate based on typical use at current prices. So, if you use more than the average, you’ll pay more – meaning this rise will be especially difficult for those with poor insulation, larger households or those with medical conditions that require more heating and electricity use. Those on prepayment meters will pay yet more.
Energy companies will keep raking in enormous profits – the government is footing the bill through additional borrowing, rather than taxing their profits.
Energy producers, like BP and Shell, are expected to make £170 billion in excess profits in the next two years, while current estimates put the cost of the energy price guarantee at £150 billion over the same timescale.
We’re paying the price for these profits
Millions still won’t be able to afford to pay our energy bills, and millions more will be pushed further into fuel poverty. The poorest households could still be spending as much as 32% of their entire budget on gas and electricity. Support for small businesses will last for only six months, leaving thousands of pubs, shops and other local businesses facing bankruptcy.
This isn’t a cost of living crisis, it’s a cost of greed crisis. Rampant profiteering is pushing up prices across everything we need in our day to day lives – and keeping our wages low.
Together, we have the power to end this crisis
We’ve forced the government into limiting the catastrophic energy price rise on 1 October. But this crisis isn’t over and our campaign doesn’t end here.
We know there’s massive support for a radically transformed energy market that works for people, not profit. If we keep speaking to our friends, neighbours and people in our communities to build the strike we’ll continue increasing the leverage and power we hold.
And, at the same time, it’ll be essential we support each other and protect our communities this winter. Many of us already aren’t able to pay and many more won’t be able to when prices rise again and we enter the colder months of the year.
By linking up with each other in local Don’t Pay groups, we can build the networks we need to support and defend our communities. We can step in together to protect each other and build an alternative where we don’t let anyone go cold or hungry.
It’s up to all of us. Sign up to be linked up with others in your local area: