14 2GM Monday January 3 2022 | the times
News
Energy bosses have called on Boris
Johnson to spread the burden of “very,
very high” price increases over several
years amid Conservative unrest at the
rising cost of living.
In a sign that the financial squeeze on
consumers could dominate the start of
this year, 20 Tories urged the prime
Ofcom’s handling of complaints against
the BBC is set to come under scrutiny as
part of a government review after
concerns were raised that the regulator
rarely rules against the corporation.
The broadcasting watchdog became
the independent regulator of the BBC
in 2017. Complaints are escalated to
Ofcom only after the BBC has reached
a final decision.
It is understood that concerns about
this arrangement have been raised with
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary,
and her department. Some critics have
noted that Ofcom sides with the BBC in
the vast majority of complaints. OthersEase the squeeze on household
budgets, anxious Tories tell PM
minister to cut VAT on energy bills and
remove the environmental levy. Others
blamed spiralling costs for a poll show-
ing him far behind Sir Keir Starmer, the
Labour leader, in crucial “red wall”
seats. Energy bills, interest rates, taxes
and inflation are all due to rise this year.
Greg Jackson, chief executive of Oc-
topus Energy, said the “three to five-
fold increase in wholesale costs” would
result in higher energy prices for con-sumers once the price cap rose in April,
unless the government intervened.
“Unless action is taken, we will start
to see those very, very high increases
come through to the consumer
market,” he told Times Radio. “The
next price cap announcement is in Feb-
ruary. And so there’s still time between
now and then for us to find ways to say,
this is a one-in-30-years event, why not
spread the cost over a number of yearsrather than try and take it all in one go?
It might need the government to help
ensure there is a mechanism in place.”
In April the cap on energy bills is ex-
pected to rise by about £500. In meet-
ings with Kwasi Kwarteng, the business
secretary, which will resume on
Wednesday, energy bosses have asked
for a £20 billion fund to help them
spread the rising costs across a decade.
In a letter yesterday to Johnson and
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, Tory MPs
and peers said that the UK was “almost
uniquely” causing energy prices to “in-
crease faster than any other competi-
tive country” through “taxation and
environmental levies”.
The group said that the increase in
bills would feed “directly into a cost-of-
living crisis for many and push them in-
to what is bluntly called ‘fuel poverty’ ”.
The signatories included Esther
McVey, the former work and pensions
secretary, Robert Halfon, chairman of
the education select committee, Steve
Baker, the former Brexit minister,
David Jones, the former Welsh secre-
tary, and Lord Lilley, trade and industry
secretary under Margaret Thatcher.
Halfon told the BBC that he was not
calling for the government to “get rid”
of green levies “for ever” but that they
should be suspended until bills fall.
Meanwhile a poll of 57 “red wall” con-
stituencies the Tories won in 2019
found that Starmer had drawn many
voters back to the Labour fold.
A survey by Deltapoll for The Mail on
Sunday found that 49 per cent of those
polled in the seats backed Labour com-
pared with 33 per cent for the Tories,
while 38 per cent said that Starmer
would be the best prime minister com-
pared with 33 per cent who backed
Johnson. If repeated at a general elect-
ion, the results could cost the Conserv-
atives more than 100 seats.
Lee Anderson, who won Ashfield for
the Conservatives in 2019, said that the
cost of living was fuelling voters’ doubts.
He blamed “the huge rises in the cost of
living coming down the track, through
higher energy bills, which my voters
care far more about than the platitudes
spouted about the ‘green agenda’ by the
wealthy elite who flew into the Cop
summit in private planes”.
Anderson, a former Labour activist,
added: “No one disagrees that we must
do more to protect the earth. But men-
tion the Net Zero journey to people in
Ashfield and they will look at you as if
you have just arrived from another
planet. Many of them are only just
managing to make ends meet. They
want to be able to switch on the heating
without worrying about the next bill.”
Household budgets are under pressure,
leading article, page 25Henry Zeffman
Chief Political Correspondent
Ofcom’s treatment of BBC
have highlighted the number of former
BBC employees on Ofcom’s board.
It is understood that Ofcom’s hand-
ling of complaints will be scrutinised in
a “mid-term review” of the BBC’s char-
ter halfway through its 11-year lifespan,
a process expected to start this year and
be completed by 2024.
A source said that some critics had
been lobbying ministers because they
wanted to be sure Ofcom was “holding
the BBC to account”.
Over the past two years only one out
of 418 complaints against the BBC were
deemed to warrant further investi-
gation by Ofcom. Out of 14 members of
Ofcom’s content board, ten are former
BBC employees. An Ofcom spokes-Kaya BurgessNews Politics
Hancock and
partner ‘at
cheese and
wine party’