Commenting after presented her Budget to
Parliament, Maurice Cousins, Campaign Director at Net Zero Watch,
said:
The decision to retain the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas
is catastrophic and deeply cynical. It accelerates decline,
deters investment and erodes one of Britain's few remaining
productive tax bases. This will deepen import dependence, expose
consumers to global volatility and weaken national
resilience.
Security experts, including General Sir Richard Barrons, the
co-author of the Strategic Defence Review, have been explicit
that Britain must urgently rearm and rebuild capacity. Yet
accelerated North Sea decline will damage the primary sectors
that defence depends upon, including steelmaking, chemicals and
heavy industrial supply chains. All of this while Russia is
outproducing the West in shells and military vehicles.
National security and prosperity are being sacrificed on the
altar of Ed Miliband's Net Zero delusion.
The rest of the Government's energy proposals are a sham. They
achieve a reduction in bills by moving some subsidy costs to
general taxation, thus hiding the problem of high costs rather
than reducing them. In addition, the measure is temporary, and
will be cancelled just as power is handed over to a new
government. This makes it look like a poison pill - a trap for
whoever has to pick up the pieces left behind by Ms Reeves and Mr
Miliband.
Importantly, almost none of the structural drivers of high bills
are fixed. The burden is merely disguised through higher taxes,
storing up greater pressure for households and businesses in the
years ahead. The government has no mandate to do this. It was
elected to fix the root causes of the cost of living
crisis.
The only concrete measure that will reduce the overall burden on
the public is the cancellation of the disastrous Energy Company
Obligation scheme, which will save the average household just £60
per year. However, much of this saving will be negated by cost
increases in other parts of the energy system.
Overall, this package does not cut real energy costs. It does not
lift growth. It does not strengthen security. It accelerates
national decline.
