In November’s Autumn Budget, this Labour government had the opportunity to do something huge. Rachel Reeves could have taken bold action to invest in our economy and improve life for everyone by taxing extreme wealth fairly. Instead, she papered over the cracks with half-measures that won’t help us in the long-term.
Take the scandal of high energy bills. Ahead of the Budget, I called on the Chancellor to lower bills by moving so-called ‘policy costs’ off household energy bills and pay for them through general taxation instead. These ‘policy costs’ pay for things like home insulation for low income households, which is a good thing. The trouble is that putting the costs on energy bills means those same low income households struggle to pay the bills. Putting it on general taxation would be fairer because it adjusts according to what you can afford. Reeves did take some of the money off bills – but she’s paying for it not by taxing wealth fairly, but by moving funding earmarked to pay for other homes across the country to be properly insulated. The result? A 25% cut in funding for warm homes.
We know making our homes easier to heat is the number one way to lower bills and keep them low. Right now, far too much of what people pay for their heating is literally going out of the window, because their homes aren’t built to stay warm.
Since 2013, the ECO scheme has helped to address this problem, insulating homes owned or rented by lower-income households. But now Reeves has taken the axe to that scheme.
The government is promising a new Warm Homes Plan – but we don’t know when this will come or if the funding will make up for what’s been lost. It’s been predicted by experts that this gap in funding could mean over 200,000 households on low incomes missing out on lower bills.
It’s also a huge blow to jobs across the country. Experts are warning cancelling ECO without having a new scheme in place to replace it will lead to the loss of 10,000 skilled jobs and could cause some businesses to fold.
The Chancellor’s approach is completely backwards – cutting long-term support for insulation programmes may result in short-term savings, but it leaves people colder and poorer in future, and it makes hitting our climate goals harder.
The worst part is, there are so many other choices this government could have taken. Like a wealth tax on the super rich, to rebuild our public services and make our country fit for the future.
I will keep fighting for this government to make fairer choices – so the people of Bristol don’t keep paying the price of its failure to tax wealth fairly.
As we head towards the end of the year, I’d like to wish everyone celebrating a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I look forward to continuing to work hard for you in 2026.
If you live in Bristol Central and need help with a local issue, email me at bristolcentraloffice@parliament.uk or write to Carla Denyer MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA For national issues email me using carla.denyer.mp@parliament.uk