COMMENTING on the Prime Minister’s announcement of a review of “green levies”, Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:
“It’s irresponsible of the Prime Minister to blame higher bills on measures to invest in green energy and energy efficency.
“The main reason reason families are paying more is the increasing wholesale price of gas, which is expected to rise by 40% over the next few decades. The Government’s own Committee on Climate Change has said that the costs of low-carbon measures have been small by comparison. The best thing we could do to cut bills in the long term would be to move away from gas and invest seriously in renewables.
“Nuclear power is also increasingly expensive yet the Government is happy for billpayers to fund a lavish subsidy for EDF. By contrast, renewable technologies have seen dramatic price falls over the past few years.
“If the Prime Minister really wants to help families struggling with bills he should put in place measures to insulate homes up and down the country. This could be funded by a windfall tax, and would create hundreds of thousands of jobs.”