Britons face $2.2b tab to heat UK’s biggest houses

Britons are paying more than £2 billion ($2.28 billion) to help people heat the country’s biggest houses because of the government’s decision to cap energy bills for everyone rather than target the aid.

Subsidising the gas and electricity for homes with at least five bedrooms will cost approximately £1.62 billion between October 2022 and March 2023, according to Bloomberg calculations. A £400 grant on top of that will add about another £460 million.

There are about 1.2 million properties with at least five bedrooms in Britain, based on estimates from property portal Zoopla.

While not all are owned by people who are well-off or have high incomes, the figures highlight how untargeted subsidies often benefit the wealthy to a greater degree. That’s a point made by the Institute of Fiscal Studies in its response to the aid plan, where it said that half of the giveaway will go to the top half of the

income distribution.

—Bloomberg