Bulb, Octopus and OVO join calls for a suspension of green taxes to reduce energy bills, four more suppliers expected to go bust

Currently, green taxes make up a large chunk of an energy bill and were introduced by the government to encourage and fund an increase in the speed of the nation’s transition to greener sources of energy and low carbon heating alternatives such as heat pumps.

Consumers are set to be hit by soaring energy bills over the next 12 months as the costs of energy supplier failures and Ofgem’s decision to hike the price cap (albeit far below what is needed if suppliers are to make revenue) pile up.

“The focus right now must be to protect consumers from high wholesale gas prices over the winter. We could accelerate the transition from gas boilers to heat pumps by shifting environmental and policy costs from electricity bills to general taxation.

Right now, so many UK homes are leaking energy like holey buckets. More efficient homes will slash energy bills and reduce the UK’s reliance on expensive, polluting gas. We need grants and financing to help households cover the high upfront costs of things like home insulation or switching to a heat pump,” said a spokesman for Bulb.

No support from the government

With the current Tory government already under attack for raising the population's tax burden to its highest level since World War Two, it is unlikely that Boris and co will want more negative headlines when it comes to taxation.

The current clash between the government and businesses during the ongoing crisis has quickly wrecked its reputation as being one that is on the side of business.

If anything, it seems the government is hell-bent on pushing forward with its green agenda despite appeals for it to offer support to struggling businesses. Its idea to introduce a gas levy onto gas bills being heavily criticised with the GMB Union saying the idea was ‘a massive step in the wrong direction.’

“At a time of rocketing gas prices, the last thing either the public or business need is extra taxes on what is an essential utility. The decision to tax users ignores the necessity of gas for most homes, or its importance to industry. Whilst investment in new low carbon heat sources is necessary, penalising as users alone is unfair and will add pressure to users already struggling with high bills,” said Andy Prendergast, GMB National Secretary.

Thousands of companies could go bust without support

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) have issued dire warnings that thousands of UK businesses will not survive the winter unless the government takes urgent action and expands a support package to help companies deal with the soaring cost of energy.

Large firms could be set to receive support after the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng suggested support could be offered to energy-intensive industries but no mention of support for already struggling SMEs has been mentioned.

“The situation facing small and medium-sized firms, in particular, is becoming dire thanks to supply chain disruption, labour shortages, price rises, soaring energy bills and taxes. If help from the government is not forthcoming, then it is, unfortunately, the case that thousands of firms would not survive the winter as a result." said the BCC.

Four more Energy Suppliers expected to exit the market

Meanwhile, the utter bloodbath in the UK energy supply market looks set to continue with media reports suggesting that four more companies are likely to declare their exit from the market by the end of today or this week.

The four suppliers in question will join the others to have gone bust this year. So far, the market has seen; Avro Energy, Enstroga, Igloo Energy, Symbio Energy, MoneyPlus Energy, PfP Energy, Utility Point, People’s Energy, Green Supplier, Hub Energy, Simplicity and Green Network Energy.

Such a tide of companies going under in such a short space of time has already put immense pressure onto Ofgem’s SoLR process, so much so that several of the larger suppliers are refusing to take on any more customers from failed businesses.

If the current situation keeps up, we could witness the crisis getting far worse and could even see one of the ‘Big Six’ suppliers go bust.