Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Sir John Major calls for windfall tax on energy profits

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major has called for an emergency tax on the profits of the UK’s top energy firms.

The ex-Conservative leader said recent price rises of more than 10% were "unacceptable" and action was needed.

The government could claw back the cost of extra winter fuel payments through a one-off tax, he suggested.

This is interesting because Major rarely says anything in public these days, and it’s interesting that his plan falls slap bang in the middle between the current policies of the government and Labour.  

Labour would freeze energy prices, where as the government seem content to do nothing let the energy companies do as they please.

Of course for this measure to work it would have to state that energy companies couldn’t simply slap on a few extra percent rise in their prices to compensate for having to pay a windfall tax.

But still it’s better than nothing, because with the price rises they're announcing the big six energy firms clearly think they are untouchable.   


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