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Centrica rubbish Labour's energy plans

The parent company of British Gas has rubbished Labour proposals to freeze gas and electric bills for homes and businesses for 20 months, suggesting it would not be commercially viable for them to operate under the conditions.

Centrica said price rises over the last five years has been due to three factors: higher commodity costs; increases in regulated transportation and distribution charges; and environmental costs and taxes.

The business said it would not be viable for them, or any other energy supplier, if prices were to be frozen.

Angela Knight, chief executive of Energy UK, the trade association for energy businesses, suggested politicians should help to address the chronic investment shortage facing the industry.

She said: “Freezing the bill may be superficially attractive, but it will also freeze the money to build and renew power stations, freeze the jobs and livelihoods of the 600,000 plus people dependent on the energy industry and make the prospect of energy shortages a reality, pushing up the prices for everyone.

“No other industry is facing the investment challenge of the energy sector. Last year alone the energy industry invested £11.6bn – the equivalent of building the Olympic stadium twenty times over. We need to invest £110bn over the next ten years to build and renew the power stations, the wires and the pipes everyone in the country needs to keep the lights on, our homes warm and to supply the power for British business to compete, to recover and to grow.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .