Martin Lewis has urged the UK Government to take action now to help millions of households across the country cope with the surging cost of energy bills following the latest forecast from Cornwall Insight that heating bills will hit £4,266 by January. The consumer champion appeared on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday to voice his concerns over the lack of additional support being put in place to offset Ofgem’s price cap which comes into effect on October 1.
The founder of MoneySavingEcpert.com said that despite the Conservative leadership contest, decisions can be made now to help people and rubbished claims that nothing can be done until a new Prime Minister takes up the post on September 5.
He said: “In May when the [UK] Government was facing political problems due to Boris Johnson, they were planning to make an announcement on energy in July and August, that was brought forward to May and the mechanism for bringing it forward is they asked Ofgem to publish forward guidance of what the price cap would be and they were therefore able to crystallise what was happening and they then made the announcements of the up to £1,200 available for the poorest homes.”
He added: There is absolutely nothing stopping the Government doing that now.”
Martin also told viewers that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak could make an agreement together about what’s going to happen, but they are “not willing to do anything, they are not willing to work together” to address the “national crisis” on energy bills which said is coming on the scale of the coronavirus pandemic.
Energy bill warning
The financial guru explained how for every £100 someone is currently paying per month through direct debit, from October 1 that will increase to £181. From January, that will jump to £215.
Martin described the rise as “cataclysmic” and said that millions of households will simply not be able to afford it.
He also expressed concerns for the “mental health damage” facing millions in the UK as a direct result of the soaring energy bills.
He said: “What we’re facing here is a financial emergency that risks lives. I accept the point that Boris Johnson is running a zombie Government and can’t do much, but the two candidates - one of them will be our prime minister - they need to get together in the national interest to tell us the bare minimum of what they will do.
“If they can’t agree, and what we need to hear now, because the mental health damage for millions of people who are panicked about this is manifest, is we need to hear accurate plans.”
He added: “We have some relative detail from Rishi Sunak saying he will look at the handouts he gave in May and increase them, but, unless he’s doubling them, and he needs to double them, it is not in proportion to what he did back in May.”
Speaking about Liz Truss’s plans, Martin added: “I cannot believe the only proposal will be tax cuts, because many of the poorest, many state pensioners, many on Universal Credit, don’t pay tax so it will not help them and they simply cannot afford this £2,000-a-year or more year-on-year rise.
“And getting rid of the green levy, which is a sticking plaster on a gaping wound… The green levy is typically around £150 off bills, we’re talking about a rise of thousands of pounds on bills.”
Ofgem is set to confirm the October price cap at the end of August.
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