Liz Truss doubles down on tax cuts over support for energy bills

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss has doubled down on her refusal to offer significant help to people with soaring energy bills this winter, despite a forecast that these could exceed £4,200 annually from January, and rise further during 2023.

Truss, the runaway favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister next month, has already said she does not want to give “handouts” to people struggling with bills, preferring to prioritise tax cuts.

While she has not definitively ruled out other direct help, questioned on Tuesday the foreign secretary would only confirm plans to reverse the recent increase in national insurance, and to temporarily suspend green levies on energy bills.

Critics of her policy warn that tax cuts disproportionately help the better off and offer no assistance to pensioners or those not in work, while the green levies contribute only about £150 annually to the average bill.

“What’s vitally important at this moment is we get economic growth going,” Truss told reporters on a visit to Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

“At the moment we’ve got the highest taxes in 70 years. That’s why I believe in lower taxes, to get growth going, to encourage businesses to invest, and that way there will be more money in people’s pockets.”

Asked if she was ruling out any other help for energy bills, Truss replied: “What I’m promising is that from day one, people will have lower taxes. They will also have lower energy bills, because I’m going to put a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy. But what we need is a growing economy.”

Earlier on Tuesday the Cornwall Insight consultancy said it expected the energy price cap, the maximum amount suppliers can charge for each unit of energy, would rise so average annual bills would reach £4,266 a year