Winchester MP, Steve Brine, has welcomed a multi-billion pound intervention by the Chancellor to help local families with the rising cost of living.
Recognising that growing cost of living pressures was the “number one issue on people’s minds”, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said this package would support hard working families.
The Energy Bills Rebate will provide around 28 million households with an upfront discount on their bills worth £200. Energy suppliers will apply the discount to domestic electricity customers from October, with the Government meeting the costs. The discount will then be automatically recovered from people’s bills in equal £40 instalments over the next five years. This will begin from 2023, when global wholesale gas prices are expected to come down.
On top of this discount, discretionary funding of £144 million will also be provided to support vulnerable people and individuals on low incomes that do not pay Council Tax, or that pay Council Tax for properties in Bands E-H.
Today’s energy intervention comes on top of the £12 billion support package the Government is already providing to ease growing cost of living pressures. This includes Cold Weather and Winter Fuel Payments, increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 in April and providing an effective tax cut for those on Universal Credit - allowing 1.9 million households to keep an average of £1,000 per year.
Steve says; “As the UK economy continues its recovery from the pandemic, we must confront the global inflationary pressures caused by the world economy coming swiftly back to life. Much of this inflation is being driven by the rising cost of energy due to increased demand worldwide – and that feeds through into pressures on the cost of living.
“Rishi Sunak has already taken steps; reducing the Universal Credit taper rate, increasing the National Living Wage, freezing fuel duty for the twelfth year in a row, and launching a £500 million Household Support Fund to help the lowest-income households with their bills. But now we can go further as the cost of living ‘checklist’ shows
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