Budget 2023: Energy price cap extended, government confirms, ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s first budget

Published

2 years ago

March 15, 2023

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The government has announced it will keep its cap on energy prices for a further three months as part of Jeremy Hunt’s first full budget.

The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) – which limits the unit cost of gas and electricity that people pay – had been expected to rise to £3,000 next month, meaning another hike in household bills.

But just hours before the chancellor was due to deliver his statement to Parliament, the Treasury confirmed the figure would now remain at £2,500 until June, claiming the typical home would save £160 on energy bills as a result.

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Hunt extends energy price cap as budget measures revealed early

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the decision, which will cost £3bn, would “give people some peace of mind”.

Mr Hunt added: “With energy bills set to fall from July onwards, this temporary change will bridge the gap and ease the pressure on families, while also helping to lower inflation too.”

However, the energy bills support scheme, which saw households getting around £66 taken off their bills each month, will still come to an end in March.

Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Pat McFadden, welcomed the announcement, saying his party had been calling for it for some time.

“I don’t mind if we lead the way as long as they do the right thing,” he told Sky News. “And I think it’s important to do that because the cost of living crisis has not gone away.

“People are really struggling to pay their bills and as things stood, those bills were scheduled to go up another £500 a year in a couple of weeks time, so I think it’s right to extend that guarantee.”

But the SNP’s economy spokesman, Stewart Hosie, said the policies did not go far enough, calling the chancellor “truly pathetic” for not keeping the energy bills support scheme.

“With energy companies making record profits, and the wholesale price of gas falling, there is no excuse for this shameful Tory decision, which will hammer household incomes and push even more families into poverty, hardship and debt,” he added.

The move is the latest early reveal from Mr Hunt’s budget, with the chancellor expected to reveal his plans in full from 12.30pm – after Prime Minister’s Questions.

Sky News also understands he will promise to provide 30 hours of childcare a week to parents of one and two-year-olds – at a cost of £4bn for the Treasury – and give a further cash injection to the sector to increase the availability of existing free childcare for three to four-year-olds.

Plans are also being considered to loosen staff-to-child ratios for two-year-olds, which could make the cost of childcare a little cheaper – though some in the sector have warned against it, saying it could undermine the quality of care.

The policies fit into what is expected to be the wider theme of the budget – encouraging people back to work.

In that vein, Mr Hunt is expected to raise the lifetime allowance for pension savings from £1m to £1.8m – a record level – and could also lift the annual tax-free allowance for pensions from £40,000 to £60,000 to incentivise professionals out of retirement.

There could also be changes to aid long-term sick, disabled people and benefit claimants to return to work.

But there could be upset from some of his own backbenchers as the chancellor is not expected to meet Tory demands for tax cuts, and will keep the planned rise in corporation tax from 19p to 25p.

However, former Conservative chancellor Lord Lamont warned against a rebellion, saying Mr Hunt had “done a good job” to “restore confidence” in the economy after Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget last year that sent the markets into turmoil.

He told Sky News: “I think it’s very important that that is not disturbed by people being unhappy about not tax cuts today.

“I don’t think there are going to be tax cuts today. I don’t think there should be tax cuts today. I don’t think you’re going to tax cuts when you have 10% inflation.

“You only deal with inflation by slowing in a controlled way. The economy dies. So it’s not the day or the time for tax cuts.”

During his speech, Mr Hunt is expected to reference the “difficult decisions” taken to stabilise the markets following the so-called mini-budget – the event that saw him brought in to reverse policies and calm the markets.

“Today, we deliver the next part of our plan: a budget for growth,” Mr Hunt will say.

“Not just growth from emerging out of a downturn. But long-term, sustainable, healthy growth that pays for our NHS and schools, finds good jobs for young people, provides a safety net for older people… all whilst making our country one of the most prosperous in the world.”

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

Published

4 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza

The targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif and four other colleagues by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) late on Sunday silences more crucial reporting voices from inside Gaza.

The IDF wasted no time in releasing a statement claiming it had “eliminated” Al-Sharif, calling him a “terrorist” who “posed” as a journalist for Al Jazeera.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists warned in July that Al-Sharif was the victim of an Israeli smear campaign and that they feared for his safety.

The IDF had previously released documents which they say proved his involvement with Hamas.

No word from them on his colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – who they also killed. We are chasing.

Al-Sharif’s death – and that of his four colleagues – is a chilling message to the journalistic community both on the ground and elsewhere ahead of Israel’s impending push into Gaza City.

There will now be fewer journalists left to cover that story, and – if it is even possible – they will be that bit more fearful.

This is how journalists are silenced. Israel knows this full well.

It has also not allowed international journalists independent access to enter Gaza to report on the war.

Al-Sharif’s death has sent shockwaves across the region, where he was a household name. He was prolific on social media and had a huge following.

I was watching horrifying footage of the immediate aftermath of the strike in the taxi on my way into the bureau, and the driver told me how he and his family had all cried for Anas when the news came in.

His little daughter cried because of Al-Sharif’s little daughter, Sham, who she knew from social media.

“They call everyone Hamas,” my taxi driver said. “Men, women, children”.

Last month, Al-Sharif wrote this post: “I haven’t stopped covering [the crisis] for a moment in 21 months, and today I say it outright… and with indescribable pain.

“I am drowning in hunger, trembling in exhaustion and resisting the fainting that follows me every moment… Gaza is dying. And we die with it.”

This is what journalists in Gaza are facing, every single day.

World

Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

10 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

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Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

17 hours ago

August 10, 2025