Thread by @faisalislam

There may be no solution to the Government’s immediate energy trilemma… the hit will go well beyond the “fuel poor”. I understand that an option on a £15bn plus “Cost Deferral Mechanism” to smooth the spike over is being developed… BLOG:

bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

No decisions yet - not everyone within Whitehall nor within the energy industry are on the same page, but they will be needed fairly quickly…

Some supporters of PM arguing he will use this Cost Deferral Scheme, to relaunch his premiership

BBC has seen some plans, there are different timeframes, some include taxpayer guarantee, though not necessarily needed, some are adaptations of the last resort mechanism approved by Ofgem for keeping customers of bust companies going, another builds on BoE pandemic schemes…

This is probably the clearest on record exposition of the option, by a backbench MP who has repeatedly won multi billion battles with his Govt, over universal credit, cladding etc:

https://twitter.com/thehousemag/status/1480863566844600320?s=21

detail in the blog about Warm Home Discount…

- cash for poorer households is added to rest of bills
- bulk of the scheme (non-“core” as in those of working age) operates with a fixed pot per energy company first come first served
- not designed as mass redistribution mechanism

In France - election year, Govt forced EDF (supplier to vast majority) to cap what wouldve been 35% price hikes at 4%, at cost to EDF of £7 billion.. further 3bn on “energy cheques” to low income households.

Majority state owned EDF share price fell 25%.

gouvernement.fr/sites/default/…