Scottish Power chief has a bright idea to ease cost of living crisis

theguardian.com:

When the cabinet is reportedly debating the merits of extending MOT tests to two years as a way to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, one can conclude that the well of big ideas in government has run dry. Or perhaps ministers simply haven’t grasped that high energy bills will go even higher in October when the consumer price cap increases again – by £500-£600 on current projections. Fiddling with £40-ish MOT delays is risible.

Instead, the most interesting proposal has come from the energy industry. Keith Anderson, the chief executive of Scottish Power, banged the drum in front of MPs last week for his “deficit fund” idea that would have the government remove £1,000 from the bills of low-income households, and he gave another thump alongside the company’s first-quarter numbers on Wednesday.

He should keep going for three reasons. First, £1,000 off bills for vulnerable households recognises the scale of what’s needed. The price cap was £1,277 before this month’s rise to £1,971, but soon could be £2,500. A round thousand pounds, coupled with the chancellor’s already-announced £150 cut in council tax bills for selected bands, would approximately fill the gap, which ought to be a minimum aim: poorer households could not possibly have been expected to prepare for the size of the energy shock.

Second, one can see how Anderson’s fund would operate even if it needs to cover 10 million lower-income households and thus be as large as £10bn for a single year. The government would underwrite the lot and the fund would be paid down over a decade, when, one hopes, wholesale energy prices will be substantially lower. The process could happen either by adding £40 a year to all households’ energy bills for 10 years, or (more progressively)