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Bloomberg
UK households face a 38 billion pounds ($50 billion) hit from a surge in electricity and gas costs exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times newspaper reported.
The increase for the 2022-23 year will be equivalent to a six pence rise in the basic rate of
income tax, it said, citing an estimate by Aurora Energy Research Ltd. Britons were already bracing for a 54% increase in the energy price cap from April, and now economists estimate the energy regulator will need to impose another similar rise from October, pushing average household energy bills to over 3,000 pounds annually, the FT said.
Britain’s finance minister Rishi Sunak isn’t planning fresh measures to help Britons cope with rising energy bills, even as calls grow from within his own Conservative Party to take further action, Bloomberg reported. He announced a 9 billion-pound package of support in February, before Russia’s invasion.
The opposition Labour has proposed a one-time windfall tax on oil and gas producers with the proceeds, along with a cut in the value-added tax, funding a reduction in household energy costs.