Sunak’s windfall tax is a ‘sticking plaster’, say climate campaigners
The windfall tax is only a “sticking plaster” to provide temporary relief on energy bills that does nothing to improve the UK’s leaky homes, and encourages oil and gas companies into more production, climate campaigners have said.
They say this will increase the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels instead of supporting a switch to green energy.
Experts have called for a nationwide programme of home insulation, as a quick and sure way to bring down energy bills that had been neglected by the government, and warned of the impact of using tax breaks to fuel new oil and gas exploration that would do nothing to ease bills in the short term and would lock in high greenhouse gas emissions in the long term.
Ami McCarthy, a political campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “This windfall tax will serve only as a sticking plaster. While providing support to millions struggling with sky-high energy bills is 100% the right thing to do, by only skimming the top 25% off oil and gas company profits Sunak has missed a huge opportunity to tackle the root cause of the cost of living crisis, and the climate crisis together.”
She said profits should have been taxed at 70%, more than doubling the cash available, which could have funded energy efficiency measures such as insulation for homes as well as the payments to households the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has agreed. Funding energy efficiency would protect against future bills as well as this year’s increases.
Sunak also announced that oil and gas companies that invest in new fossil fuel production would receive a tax break worth 90% of the windfall tax. Yet new oil and gas production will take years, perhaps decades, to come to fulfilment, making no impact on energy bills now and potentially busting
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