Amber Rudd has said he she is “very surprised” that the government has not taken more action to tackle soaring energy bills, predicting the pressure to do so will become “unstoppable” this autumn.
The former secretary of state for energy and climate change was probed on the current government’s response to the gas price squeeze during a Q&A at consultancy Aurora’s renewable energy conference in London.
Rudd, who later became secretary of state at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), said she is “convinced” that ministers will have to intervene again to help customers cope with what is expected to be a fresh substantial hike in the price cap this autumn.
“They will have to do something. The scale of increase in peoples’ regular bills is such that they are not going to be able to cope.
“As a former DWP secretary of state, I know how precarious life is for many people on low budgets and this is an unreasonable ask.
“I am surprised they have not done something through the benefit system, and I suspect they will because as it gets close to the next price cap in October, the pain will start to hit and the knowledge that it will only get worse will become an unstoppable force against the government and the Treasury to take some action.”
In February, chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled a £9.1bn package of help for energy customers but announced no further assistance in March’s Budget, which followed the fresh spike in gas prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Rudd, whose roles since leaving Parliament at the last election include a non-executive directorship at Centrica, also cast doubt on the success of Nigel Farage’s recently launched campaign to reverse the government ‘s net zero target.
While the ex-UKIP’s leader’s move is “very unwelcome”, she said a repeat of his 2016 Brexit referendum win is “not on the horizon at the moment”.
Rudd said the public view on climate change has “changed completely” since 2015 when the Paris climate change conference, where she represented the British government as energy and climate change secretary, was seen as an “esoteric” subject within government.
Rudd said the fact that it is a Conservative government taking action on climate change with the chief pressure coming from opposition parties to go further is “politically a good combination” for efforts to cut emissions.
But the former Hasting and Rye MP said she is “not convinced” at the level of support for onshore wind farms recorded in recent opinion polls and defended her involvement in the then government’s decision to effectively block the technology.
She said: “You can’t expect politicians to do much against their interest.”