What is Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills?

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. During a media blitz on Monday morning, the Labour leader’s “fully costed” £29bn strategy would freeze Ofgem’s energy price cap – the maximum amount utility companies can charge customers on standard tariffs – preventing the further dramatic rises forecast for October and January. The £29bn needed would come from closing the “absurd” loopholes in Rishi Sunak’s windfall tax imposed on oil and gas giants and backdating it to January, by dropping existing measures like the £400 energy rebate pledged by the former chancellor and by keeping inflation down, which would reduce the government’s debt interest payments by another £7bn. So we’ve got a very strong, robust, costed plan here which will stop those rises this autumn.” Elaborating further during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the opposition leader added: “The double benefit of this is that it also tackles the question of what are you going to do about inflation.” Sir Keir argued that halting the price cap increases would keep inflation down, seeing it peak at about 9 per cent rather than the 13 per cent the Bank of England is forecasting, making future interest rate rises less likely. “Whilst we’re cancelling parts of the government’s approach so far, the bit we’re not cancelling is the £650 to pensioners and those on Universal Credit, so that is targeted support we would keep.” The policy was welcomed by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, with the caveat that further government help would still be required to boost struggling families, and by the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, whose latest analysis likewise suggests that freezing fuel bills would help keep inflation at just over 9 per cent, as well as easing the burden on families.