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.
Need financial advice?
If you have any personal finance questions related to this news article, then please contact our financial advisers. You can get in touch by asking a question online, calling us on 0800 092 1245, or by arranging a visit.
Share this..
Related stories
Car scrappage scheme ends today
The popular car scrappage scheme ends today with the last of the 400,000 car allocation set to be utilised. While the scheme has attracted much criticism from some areas of the UK there is no doubt it has been very successful, turning a 30.5% annual decline in car sales into a 57.6% increase over the car scrappage scheme period. The government also estimates that up to 4,000 jobs have been saved d...
Read MoreGovernments Renewable Energy Targets Not Feasible
As the UK government prepares to dish up the latest plans to increase renewable energy in the country it seems as though the ideas are flawed before they even reach the press. While the figure of 15% renewable energy by 2020 has been mentioned in a number of areas, when you consider the figure is currently less than 2%, how can this be possible?
Looking at areas such as wind power,...
Energy companies refuse to pass on cost savings
In a situation which puts the UK government in a difficult position the chief executive of EON UK has suggested that energy companies will not pass on cost savings to their customers in order to protect their profit margins. They cite an expected £100 billion investment into new wind farms and power plants as their reason for retaining much of the cost savings of late and blame the government's e...
Read MoreAre high street banks morally obliged to assist rural communities?
As more and more of the U.K.'s big banks decide to close branches up and down the country, there is growing concern that many rural areas are being left high and dry with banks ditching their moral obligation to assist local economies. This is not a new phenomenon but the onset of the worldwide recession has focused minds more upon cost-cutting than customer service and we are set to see more and...
Read MoreSimple ways to save money : Club membership
How many of us have made various New Year resolutions over the years only to break them after only a few weeks? How many of us have joined a gym in the hope of getting fit but not made full use of the membership?
There are many people in the UK who will join gyms, fitness clubs, weight loss clubs and other associations where monthly premiums are paid direct from their bank accounts....