Responding to news that the Energy Price Cap will increase by £60 (or 4 per cent) from the 1^st of October, Mike Foster CEO of the trade body EUA said: 

“Obviously this is further bad news for the hard-pressed consumer, still reeling from the 13 per cent increase in July. Yes, it could have been considerably worse if the government had not scrapped VAT on electricity but they did leave it on gas and as the winter approaches, and the heating gets turned on, there is scope to do more and quickly.

 “And the government could also scrap the net zero boiler tax, which new analysis[1] now suggests will cost 1.3 million households an extra £47 this year, with some suggestions[2] the figure could be as high as £67. Ministers could act on this immediately if the cost-of-living mattered more than net zero at this moment in time.”

 [1] Original £36 per unit boiler tax is subject to VAT at 20%, equalling £47.

[2] If merchants and installers also add a 20% profit margin to the products they sell, this figure rises to £67. At DESNZ’s insistence, the boiler tax is hidden in the product retail price and not a separate item on invoices.