Chris Huhne yesterday’s dismissed a Telegraph splash – predicting a 42 per cent rise in bills – as “ludicrous”, as I reported on this blog. Decc’s own predictions are for a real terms rise of about 32 per cent by 2030 (from £500 to £640 per household) which you might argue is quite similar.
One can only wonder then what the energy secretary made of today’s Times headline saying: “Electric bills will double by 2030 to fund new generation of nuclear power stations.” (page 25)
Leave aside the fact that the rise in bills will pay for a whole swathe of new power generation, including fossil fuels, renewables – and not only nuclear.
To calculate a doubling of bills, the newspaper worked out that: “Electricity accounts for about £500 in the average annual household energy bill. With inflation, the electricity portion is likely to rise to about £900 by 2030.”
The key here is the word inflation. By 2030 the price of almost everything (depending on inflation rates) may have nearly doubled, when you stop to think about it. Just saying.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey