UK Taxpayers on the Hook for Truss’s £200 Billion Energy Plan

According to people familiar with the policy, UK taxpayers will be on the hook for as much as two hundred billion dollars over the next eighteen months to cover the cost of the Prime Minister's plan to contain energy prices.

Energy suppliers will receive funding from the government to cover the difference between wholesale market costs and what they are allowed to charge customers, according to documents seen by the news agency. The people said that the costs would be financed out of government borrowing. A spokesman wouldn't say anything.

As successor to Boris Johnson, Truss is under pressure to deliver swift and decisive action to shield British households and businesses from soaring energy costs as Russia blocks the supply of natural gas to Europe.

The package includes a discount scheme for businesses that could cost up to £67 billion over the course of a year, according to documents.

The support will add 10% to the UK's national debt and is close to the amount given out during the swine flu epidemic. The budget deficit has only been seen in modern times during the financial crisis and Covid epidemic.

Paying for the support may cause the government to raise the debt in bond markets. During her campaign to win the leadership of the governing Conservative Party, she promised no new taxes.

She has promised to make government savings to pay for her separate £30 billion of payroll and corporate tax cuts.

"I'm skeptical about whether we've got room for big increases in spending and tax cuts." Many UK citizens don't know that the UK economy is more vulnerable than they think. We can't just give money to people and hope for the best.

The money would have come from a private deficit fund that would be guaranteed by the government and repaid over the course of a decade or more by surcharges on bills. It wouldn't have had a big impact on the finances.

Alex Wickham assisted.