Scrapping green subsidies is short-termist sabotage – and as usual the consumer will pay | Camilla Born

Weaning ourselves off gas is the only way to reduce energy bills long term. Cutting support for this is exactly the ‘sticking-plaster politics’ Labour promised to end

After years of painfully high energy bills, diminishing household budgets and stalled investment, this year’s budget, on 26 November, should be the moment when the government finally starts to confront why the UK’s energy system is so expensive. And yet, if recent briefings suggesting that Labour will dramatically scale back the heat pump subsidy for households are to be believed, it is now repeating exactly the same mistakes as its predecessors.

People want relief from painful energy bills. In the long term, electrification is the only way to provide this. In practice, that means switching from gas boilers to heat pumps, shifting from petrol cars to electric vehicles: boosting access to technologies that are modern, cheaper to run, and are already becoming mainstream. At present, our energy system protects the legacy gas-based system, subsidising supply and penalising demand in ways that keep gas artificially cheap and electricity artificially expensive, even when electric technologies cost less to operate.

Camilla Born is the CEO of Electrify Britain, a campaigning organisation founded by EDF and Octopus Energy

Continue reading...