According to The Times, a new strategy will be published before the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow next month, which commits the Government to cutting the price of electricity and imposing a levy on gas bills to fund low-carbon heating.
On Monday, the Prime Minister said Britain was aiming to produce "clean power" by 2035 as part of the country's goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions; and earlier this week, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insisted that by decarbonising the UK's power supply, the Government would ensure that households are less vulnerable to swings in fossil fuel markets.
The Government will release a series of consultations before going ahead with the plan, which is likely to start in 2023 and could add £170 a year to gas bills, the paper reported.
The strategy will reportedly include measures to boost the sale of heat pumps, which according to the GMB union costs £8,750 on average before VAT - the equivalent to almost a third (31%) of the average household's entire annual income.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told the Times:
"We'll set out our upcoming heat and buildings strategy shortly. No decisions have been made."It comes as rising energy costs have prompted industry leaders to warn the Government their factories could stop production or permanently close.
Andrew Large, director-general at the Confederation of Paper Industries, and Gareth Stace from UK Steel attended a meeting with the Business Secretary and other representatives of energy intensive industries to discuss the wholesale gas crisis on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's PM programme afterwards, Mr Large claimed it was "very clear" across all of the sectors that there are "serious" risks factories could stop all activities as a result of the gas prices being too high. He said:
"When we talked with the Secretary of State this afternoon, it was very, very clear across all of the sectors that there are serious risks of effectively factory stoppages as a result of the costs of gas being too high to bear, and in those circumstances there will be a gradual knock-on effect through supply chains, right the way across manufacturing, consumer retail and other products. And so the risks are very, very real."Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr Stace insisted the worst-case scenario would see steel plants closing for good.
He explained:
"The nightmare scenario would be that we produce less steel in the UK, that we see all of that steel that we do consume in the UK, and that's increasing, be met by imports and once you take away a steel plant, you don't really bring them back.In a letter to the Times' editor, former British ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton appeared to suggest the UK should have signed a long-term contract with Moscow for gas supply 15 years ago. Sir Tony said:
"That's it for good. Once it's done, it's done."
"I witnessed Gordon Brown complain to (Vladimir) Putin about surging gas prices; the response was that our problem was self-inflicted. Other countries avoided the vicissitudes of the market by entering long-term contracts; Britain did not."Analysts have predicted UK customers could see their energy bills rise by 30% next year.
Research agency Cornwall Insight has claimed further volatile gas prices and the potential collapse of even more suppliers could push the energy price cap to around £1,660 in summer.
The forecast is approximately 30% higher than the record £1,277 price cap set for winter 2021-22, which commenced at the start of October.
The reason for this is partly due to the subsides being paid to the parasitical wind farm operators, and all the green schemes the Government has introduced, including "Free" loft/cavity wall insulation, double glazing, smart meters and solar panels and we must not forget the cost of the wind turbines themselves and associated infrastructure, all this has been paid for by the public through increased tariffs and not by the power companies, sounds like it's great value for money, well for them them anyway, but not the general public.
How about the power companies stick to electrical engineering to solve the power grids capacity issues (More power stations?) and less social engineering through smart meters, once the uk reaches 80% of households having smart meters installed, they will introduce variable timed tariffs throughout the 24 hr period forcing many to use their appliances when it suits the national grid. Not sure how all the electric cars will be able to be charged up, if an average electric car being on charge consumes around 100 Kilowatts per hour, similar amount of power needed to run 30 electric kettles constantly boiling. Where is all the extra power going to come from for all these electric cars?
The recent folding of many smaller power companies is sad, but again great if you want to get rid of the competition which I think was the plan all along, thus allowing and ensuring the big guns are all that's left to reap the huge rewards coming their way soon.
In the Scottish Highlands there is an abundance of Hydro Electric schemes (Renewable energy) which were constructed after the 1st and 2nd world wars. They have systematically kept many of the Hydro Electric reservoirs low in past 5-10 years, thus having next to no generating capacity. On the other hand a myriad of mountain access roads have been constructed to facilitate the construction of more wind farms, many of these were constructed 5-10 years ago, although some of the wind turbines have yet to make an appearance but no doubt will in time. There is even talk of dismantling some of the Hydro schemes as apparently they are not an efficient means of generating electricity, really? So, we are told the wind farms are green and efficient, what a load of bullshit. In short the wind farms would not exist unless the subsides were in place. All this being done at any cost to the detriment of everything else, what a fucked up policy.
The gas prices are low compared to electricity as stated before and it's time for them to even up the prices and I feel gas will overtake the cost of electricity soon making natural gas an extinct method of heating homes, they will deliberately price it out of the market for the vast majority, ditto for cars and flying too.
If your a Government that want's to take care of the nations people you would have contingency plans for different scenarios, i.e. you would not put all your eggs in the one basket, you would have at least gas, hydro, oil, wind, solar, tidal and even coal as a backup you never know what's round the corner, you would spread the risk, the problem here is our so called leaders (Parasites) do not care for the nations long term well-being or wish to start anytime soon.