Rishi Sunak unveils a new plan to ease Britain’s cost-of-living squeeze
The Tories flip-flop on the merits of a windfall tax
On may 24th Britons got some grim but expected news from Ofgem, the energy regulator. In October their average annual energy bills will probably jump to around £2,800 ($3,505), over twice as much as a year earlier. In the absence of more government support, two in five households would then be spending more than 10% of their income on energy (see chart). That support is now, rightly, forthcoming. On May 26th Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced a package of measures to ease the burden of rising prices, and a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas companies’ profits to help pay for it.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The wind changes”
Britain May 28th 2022
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