Shifting green levies to gas is unnecessary, cruel and dangerous
29 March 2023
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Lifestyle Economics
29 March 2023
Government and Institutions
Fraud Focus quoted in The Times of Scotland
29 March 2023
Trade, Development, and Immigration
4 November 2024
Commenting on reports that the government will shift green levies from electricity bills onto gas bills, Andy Mayer, Energy Analyst at free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“A ‘Warmth Tax’ on households with gas boilers is unnecessary, cruel and dangerous.
“It is unnecessary for the environment because fossil fuel extraction is already taxed heavily. It is cruel because it will encourage the poor, elderly and vulnerable to turn off their gas heating and shiver next winter. It is dangerous because the cold kills over 60,000 people each year.
“The only beneficiaries of this change will be households wealthy enough to afford heat pumps – which currently cost from £8,000 up to £45,000. This is unaffordable for most and unsuitable for many old, small and shared properties.
“Green levies could be scrapped and the residual cost managed more fairly through general taxation while renewables are weaned off state support, as proposed in Sir Dieter Helm’s review in 2017.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
CONTACT: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
“A ‘Warmth Tax’ on households with gas boilers is unnecessary, cruel and dangerous.
“It is unnecessary for the environment because fossil fuel extraction is already taxed heavily. It is cruel because it will encourage the poor, elderly and vulnerable to turn off their gas heating and shiver next winter. It is dangerous because the cold kills over 60,000 people each year.
“The only beneficiaries of this change will be households wealthy enough to afford heat pumps – which currently cost from £8,000 up to £45,000. This is unaffordable for most and unsuitable for many old, small and shared properties.
“Green levies could be scrapped and the residual cost managed more fairly through general taxation while renewables are weaned off state support, as proposed in Sir Dieter Helm’s review in 2017.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
CONTACT: media@iea.org.uk / 07763 365520
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
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