Details are leaking of Truss's proposed energy price plan and..... it's not looking good.
Remember, Labour's plan was to windfall tax the energy companies and give the money to the population. It was a pretty blunt instrument as it handed cash over to everyone, irrespective of wealth, but it did at least ensure that no one would pay more for their energy for the next six months, and it took excessive profits away from the privatised energy companies that are making out like bandits.
Truss's plan is shaping up to be a massive government loan
TO THE ENERGY COMPANIES, which is then paid back
BY THE POPULATION over the next ten years or more. (And rumours abound that her plan only covers the next four months, instead of six, and last time I checked it can still be pretty cold in January and February.)
So in essence, the energy companies get given tens of billions pounds of government (taxpayer!) money as a bribe to keep bills fixed in the short term, and then in the medium to long term, everyone in the UK has to pay higher energy bills for a decade or more to pay the bribe back to the government. All those billions the energy companies are making in massive profits and shareholder dividends? They get to keep the lot.
Also, Truss's measure will be inflationary, which means more interest rate rises, which means more misery for millions of people already struggling to get by, and also means more profits for the banks because they hold government debt and the higher interest rates are, the more profits they make on that debt.
So Truss has come out of the gates swinging there. Still, at least she's telling everyone who she is and who she's going to govern for.
Also, no suggestion there will be any help for businesses. At this point all we can hope for is that the leaks are wrong.
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