The Guardian has got its hands on details of the Government’s rescue package for those struggling with rising fuel bills. The centrepiece of it is a £1 billion deal with energy companies, by which those same companies will contribute more to the carbon emissions reduction target scheme – in other words, more money will be available to help people have their homes insulated.
It’s all much as Brown prepared us for in his speech last week – no “short term gimmicks and giveaways” and an emphasis on “long term efficiency”. But the same questions remain. Will it actually help all that much? Will it increase support for the Government? Will it satisfy the unions and those in the Labour party who wanted a windfall tax? Will the energy companies not just pass on any extra costs to the public, in the form of higher bills? I – like many others – have my doubts on all those fronts.
This damp squib of an “economic recovery package” is fast becoming the textbook example of how a government can constrain itself by spending, taxing and borrowing the economy to the hilt. Brown is now left scrabbling around for loose change, instead of having the fiscal space to really help those who are being hit by high energy costs. It’s politically inept. But – with the expectation being that 1000s more elderly people will die this winter because they can’t afford their energy bills – it’s morally inept too.
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