Rudd: Leaving the EU could push up bills
24/03/2016
Energy bills could rise by more than £500 million by the 2020s if Britain left the EU on 23rd June, according to Amber Rudd, the UK’s energy secretary.
In an upcoming speech in Kent, Ms Rudd will claim that staying in the EU has kept household energy bills down, providing access to cheap electricity from the continent, along with facilitating billions of pounds of investment in the UK's energy network and supply chain.
In her speech, she will argue that the Britain vote to leave the European Union would result in a massive electric shock to the UK due to skyrocketing energy costs.
If Ms Rudd’s claims are correct, it would mean energy bills would rise by more than £20 per household in the UK.
Ms Rudd has based her claim on a report from National Grid consultants Vivid Economics. While the National Grid does not take a political view on leaving the EU themselves, the report states that ‘the impact on the UK energy system is very likely to be negative’.
National Grid expressed they were not giving an opinion about the UK's future in the EU but wanted to inform the debate by providing evidence about different settings.
Supporters of leaving the EU have said the claims by the UK Energy Secretary that total household bills could rise by as much as £1.5m a day are "absurd".
Those who are campaigning to leave the EU have said the UK did not depend on the EU or Russia for supplies, and EU membership has actually pushed cost ups.
With only three months until the referendum on the UK’s EU membership, both oppositions are questioning what leaving the EU means for UK employment, growth domestic security and national sovereignty.
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