The PM will have to rein in energy firm profits if freeze is to be paid for by taxes - The Yorkshire Post says

Liz Truss faces the unenviable task of steering the country through the cost of living crisis, managing an NHS that is on life support and an economy that is headed for recession. She faces all of this while the war in Ukraine shows no signs of ending.

Little has been revealed, so far, about how Ms Truss and her Government will actually help millions of people facing down the barrel of exponential rises in their energy bills.

As Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, warns, “if the energy price cap rise goes ahead, one in three households in West Yorkshire will have no disposable income left after paying energy bills”.

However, the new Government is expected to freeze energy bills without the cost being passed down through future bills as the Government would pay energy firms to subsidise bills.

That will be welcome relief for millions of anxious households up and down the country. There is no denying that support can’t come fast enough as we head into winter.

But if the Government does end up paying energy firms to subsidise bills then it will have to bring to heel the eye-watering profits made by energy giants in the long run.

Especially when it is the public, through taxation, that would be footing the £90bn plus bill for the freeze.

When the likes of Shell, which made almost £10bn in profit between April and June, and BP, which saw profits triple to almost £7bn in the second quarter, are dishing out billions to shareholders, the burden through taxation will not sit well with families unless energy companies are also reined in.

There are no easy solutions for the new PM and everyone will have to make some sacrifices in order to weather this storm. But that will have to include the energy companies, who continue to roll in the cash.