LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron promised yesterday to cut rising energy costs, seeking to regain the initiative from an opposition Labour Party that has pledged to freeze bills if it wins the next election in 2015.
Cameron said his government would set out measures to cut bills by an average of £50 ($81.90) a year in an economic update on Thursday which finance minister George Osborne said he would use to carry on reducing Britain’s budget deficit, even as the economy recovers.
The soaring cost of household energy has dominated political debate in Britain since Labour leader Ed Miliband said in September that his party would freeze bills for 20 months if it wins power.
Labour has shifted its attack on Cameron from the long flat-lining economy, which has returned to growth this year, to what it calls a cost of living crisis. Many families are squeezed by weak wage growth, rising bills and government cuts.
“Instead of a fake giveaway, we have found another way to support Britain’s hard-pressed families,” Cameron wrote in a joint article with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in the Sun on Sunday newspaper.
The government says Miliband’s cap on bills would not work because energy suppliers would raise their prices before and after the 20-month freeze. Cameron said he would transfer the cost of helping the poorest families with energy prices from household bills to general taxation, paid for by a tax avoidance crackdown.
reuters
