Energy Bills

We keep being told there’s nothing to be done about energy bills, as if Zeus himself etched the price cap into stone. But look at the breakdown and it’s obvious – around a tenth of what you pay isn’t for energy at all. It’s levies and policy costs, tacked on like an extra pint slipped onto your tab when you weren’t looking.

Shift those onto general taxation and the whole country would save the grief of seeing them on their bills. The Treasury would need roughly £5 billion a year to cover it. That sounds scary until you realise it’s about one penny on the basic rate of income tax. One penny – less than the change most people wouldn’t bother to stoop for in the street.

And here’s the rub: loading it onto bills is regressive. Everyone pays the same levy per unit, whether you’re a pensioner shivering in a semi or a hedge-fund manager heating his swimming pool. Do it through tax and you can scale it properly – the rich shoulder more, the poor shoulder less. Fairness 101.

Why don’t governments do it? Because no Chancellor wants a Budget headline that screams “1p on income tax.” So instead they bury it in your bill and let the energy companies take the blame, while ministers pose as guardians of “low taxes.” It’s smoke and mirrors – the money’s still coming out of your pocket, only in the most brutal way possible.

So the next time someone mutters darkly about “green levies pushing up bills,” tell them the truth. We could pay for the transition with a fair tax tweak the country wouldn’t even notice. But politicians would rather you stayed angry at your meter than at them.