Is the government more to blame than energy firms for soaring bills?

Almost half of Britons blame the government more than energy firms for the energy crisis, according to a new poll.

A survey of 1,021 adults from across the UK showed that 47% of respondents blame ministers for “failing to prepare and prevent” the surge in energy bills, said Metro. Just under a third (30%) blame energy companies for the national crisis, which will see millions of households contend with an unprecedented 80% increase in their energy costs in October,

The energy price cap will increase by more than 80% to £3,549 from 1 October, regulator Ofgem announced on Friday morning. The increase will mean that households on a typical default tariff will pay an extra £1,578 a year for their gas and electricity, the Mirror reported.

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Ofgem’s chief executive has urged the incoming PM to “act further” to tackle the impact of price rises. But opinions differ on the extent to which the government was to blame for the crisis in the first place.

Is the government to blame?

Labour has blamed the Conservatives for the extent of the crisis. “The government cannot get off the hook for the energy crisis… when far more exposed European neighbours have kept costs lower,” wrote David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, in a piece for the i news site.

The “national economic emergency” we are experiencing is “the result of 12 years of Conservative energy policy that has left bills too high and energy security too weak”, wrote Lammy. He said that the situation is “being exacerbated by our overexposure to fossil fuel dictators around the world, including Putin”.

Writing for The Guardian in January, former Labour leader Ed Miliband agreed that the energy crisis has a “global dimension” to it, but said that “the British people have a right to ask why we have been hit so badly”. The shadow climate change and net zero secretary blamed the Tories for allowing the UK’s last major domestic gas storage facility to close in 2017 and for failing to come up with a “proper” home insulation plan.

Miliband described the energy crisis as “the product of a decade of Conservative failure”, adding that the party “failed to properly manage our energy policy or regulate markets”.

Dave Toke, a reader in energy politics and law at Aberdeen University, agreed that “government failure” is behind the energy crisis. UK gas storage is “many times lower than other European countries’”, he wrote for Chartist. “The UK government has refused to support investments in gas storage,” he added.

The UK has been “particularly hard-hit” as 85% of British homes are run on gas central heating and because we are “both reliant on imports and have insufficient storage infrastructure in place to retain supplies”, said The Independent.

Or past governments?

But while Labour politicians point the finger of blame at the government, The Telegraph has argued that they should look closer to home.

After former Labour leader Gordon Brown called for an emergency budget for the new government to address the cost-of-living crisis, The Telegraph said earlier this month: “One reason why the country faces such a perilous winter is because of the failures of the Labour government of which [Brown] was a prominent member for 13 years.” During his years in office, it pointed out, “construction did not begin on any new nuclear power reactors”.

Could it have been neither?

Others have blamed non-governmental factors for leading to the energy crisis. “As countries began to recover from the pandemic, demand for gas started to increase again and could not be met due to a shortage in supply,” said the Energy Saving Trust, so gas prices began to rise in 2021.

In a blog post, the trust said the problem was then exacerbated when renewable sources like wind produced less power due to less blustery conditions, and cold weather during the winter months forced more people to turn their heating up.

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “threatened supplies and driven up prices further,” it added, as Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and gas.

What next?

Ministers were warned on Thursday that the rise in the energy price cap would leave millions of people unable to heat their homes or cook food. Liz Truss has now said she is planning a “big package” of targeted support to help pensioners and the poorest households, reported The Times on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak said he would find up to £10bn to soften the impact of the October price rise and cover the total cost of rising energy bills for up to 16 million vulnerable people, said The Guardian.