Time for some common sense in the fight against energy bill hikes

Even before yesterday's UK Budget, it was clear our energy bills were only going one way, and it wasn't down.

- Sue Webber

New analysis of Labour's energy policies published last week showed average household energy bills are likely to be at least £150 higher in the next five years thanks to Ed Miliband's net zero obsession.

The SNP's same enthusiasm for onshore wind farms contributes to the cost because the operators are paid to switch off the turbines when the grid is in danger of overloading. In the first two months of this year, these so-called "constraint" payments cost around £500 million, which gets passed on to the consumer.

It will be the same this winter, and although the energy price cap is set to rise only slightly in January, that's after a 2 per cent rise last month - and despite wholesale energy prices actually dropping 4 per cent in the past three months. If that reduction was passed on to consumers it could have saved the average households £70 a year.