From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
A new report by the Renewable Energy Foundation claims that green energy subsidies are now costing the public £25.8 billion a year.
The Telegraph report:
Britain’s green energy subsidies have added an estimated £280 to households’ energy bills, research has found.
Levies used to encourage construction of wind farms, solar parks and other renewables have added £25.8bn a year to energy bills paid by both households and industry, according to a study from the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF).
The charity said the cost of the subsidies were a key factor in the UK’s sky-high electricity prices and blamed them for accelerating the decline of British industry.
John Constable, REF’s director, said: “Renewables subsidies are now costing £25.8 bn per year – or over £900 per household annually – about one third of which, £280, will hit the average domestic electricity bill directly.
Full story here.
REF’s report can be seen here.
Their numbers are largely the same as I have been reporting on for a while, including the official costings from the OBR of environmental levies, which are indisputable.
REF also include REGOs (Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificates), which are increasingly profitable for renewable generators and, of course, end up being paid for by us.
They also includes the costs on fossil generators imposed by the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and Climate Change Levy. These not only increase our bills but also have the effect of increasing revenue for renewable generators.
John Constable has a full interview on GB News below:
Unsurprisingly DESNZ responded with a pack of lies and distortions, as the Telegraph reported:
A Government spokesman disagreed with the REF figures used in the report and said it “ignores the benefits of clean power and significantly misleads on the cost of renewables”.
A spokesman said: “As shown by the National Energy System Operator’s independent report, clean power by 2030 is achievable and will deliver a more secure energy system, which could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.”
How REF can be “significantly misleading on the cost of renewables” is a mystery, given that REF’s numbers all come from official data.
And as we already know, NESO’s claim of lower bills was totally fake. Their calculations were based on a massive rise in carbon taxes, which would artificially increase gas generation costs. Only by this legerdemain were they able to claim that more renewables would therefore be cheaper.
Either way, whatever our bills are in 2030 is utterly irrelevant to the fact that we are already paying £26 billion a year more than we should be. Shaving a billion or two off this in a few years time is neither here nor there.
Whatever it is: tax it. Never mind a cost of living crisis
Reeves planning to slap ‘milkshake tax’ on millions – Express. And that includes lattes, too…
The sugar and salt taxes are up going later in the year.
If only energy was the singular concern, but it’s across the board.
I saw something today that said the sugar tax on soft drinks currently set at 5% sugar is going to be reduced to 4%. Not something that affects me greatly as I have lemonade a couple of times a month at most.
But I guess artificial sweeteners will be used as a replacement with whatever health problems they may or may not bring.
George Harrison wrote Taxman in the 60’s
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If it gets too cold, I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
If you have to import your electric energy you have to tax everything to pay for it.
https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/import_export_map/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE
OT: Now that Reform UK has won a safe Labour seat, won control of [county] councils, and Regional Mayoralties the media cannot cope. Post elections The Guardian has changed its description of Reform from far-right to… hard right, but are voters motivated by racism?
Good Morning Britain star Narinder Kaur has hit out at Reform UK voters in Lincolnshire after they appointed Dame Andrea Jenkyns as their new mayor.
Narinder Kaur took to X – formerly known as Twitter – shared it her followers and took aim the Reform UK voters who appointed her as the new mayor in Lincolnshire.
She captioned the post: “She’s a failed Tory MP, shame on the thick racists in Lincolnshire who voted for this car crash of a woman who thinks vulnerable people should be put in tents.”
https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/2049715/gmb-star-brands-andrea-jenkyns-voters-racist#
She is of course referring to the boat people in 4 star hotels at our expense; ~£10 mil per day.
The UK had to vote out Rishi Sunak. They didn’t want Keir Starmer but he is the price they had to pay. That is 2-party politics.
As for the losing Lincolnshire candidate blaming and abusing the electorate – bye bye.
It isn’t two party anymore, Mike.
Difficult to tell until the next proper election. Was this a paradigm shift or just a huge protest vote? The largest vote share in a recent survey of all the party leaders was for……. ‘none of the above’.
It was a voice
There are a lot of indications that it is something very different. The trap in evaluating these events is to assume that its all happened before. So this is like the SDP, or UKIP, or the revival in the Liberals fortunes, or the Referendum. Don’t think so.
What we have just seen has never happened before in any period of English history that we would recognize as relevant – that is, in the era of universal suffrage. Or at least, its never happened as a temporary blip and things returned to the previous normal.
Something like it did happen before, to the Liberal Party, in the 1920s. Not a good omen for either of the two main parties. Too early to say how its going to work out, but it does not feel like a protest vote or a blip. Its more a settled determination to send the bums home.
“that we would recognize”
Standard escape clause.
FPTP voting makes it look more two party than it is.
Liberal Democrats 72 seats on 3,519,143 votes
Reform 5 seats on 4,117,610 votes
Green 4 seats on 1,944,501 votes
Having support across the whole country as opposed to localised support in a few regions puts you at a disadvantage. Labour with landslide only got 2.3 times as many votes as Reform, and Tories 1.7 times as many.
Butas many politicians tell you FPTP gives you strong government.
Playing the Race Card is Standard Operating Procedure for Leftists. They accuse anyone they don’t like of being a racist.
I saw a bunch of headlines on the subject yesterday describing Reform as far-right and hard-right and extreme right, except Brietbart, who didn’t use any pejoratives.
Nigel had a big smile on his face. Me, too. 🙂 Let’s hope it’s a trend. Let’s hope Starmer doesn’t sic British Intelligence on the Reform Party the way the German government is doing to the AfD Party in their country. It looks like Germany is going full facist.
JD Vance was highly critical of the German move and told them they should reverse their position.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-criticizes-germany-for-labeling-afd-extremist/a-72423560
US criticizes Germany for labeling AfD ‘extremist’
Srinivas Mazumdaru with AFP, dpa
Trump administration officials have condemned the move by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to designate the far-right AfD party an extremist group, setting off a diplomatic row between the two NATO allies.
Ironic that the moving banner at the bottom of the screen tells us that temperatures “could reach 30 degrees C at the earliest point since Met Office records began.” I wonder at which RAF base this temperature will be recorded. Looking at the BBC Weather website, all I can find over the next fortnight is a high of 23 degrees C.
News flash- No nukes and more fickles subsidies for Oz for the next 3 years-
Australia won’t be getting Nuclear Energy
Australia joins Canada?
Maybe Australia can petition to become the US 51st State.
Story tip
Reform’s councils begin war on net zero projects in countryside
Richard Tice declares party’s local authorities will do everything to block renewable developments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/03/reform-councils-begin-war-net-zero-development-countryside/
Look out Mad Ed!
The Tide seems to be turning.
I bet the blackouts in Spain and Portugal are going to spur further protests against windmills and industrial solar.
They could also remove all the climate change-related staff and propaganda from the Council. And make sure that pupils get proper scientific education. And critical thinking.
Meanwhile Labour has vowed to press ahead with plans to build electricity pylons rather than bury transmission cables because the latter is at least 4.5 times more expensive and often considerably more.
As a sop they are offering households near the new pylons £250 off their electricity bill for 10 years.
That won’t come anywhere near the depreciation in their house price because of the pylons.
“…a million here, a million there, and pretty soon you`re talking about real money….”
Despite the money spent trying to fight climate change, no one is saying that there has been any improvement to our global climate.
We have to stop people falsifying real science
Always remember government subsidies, tax preferences and environmental forgiveness don’t have to cost us anything. If it weren’t for corrupt government we wouldn’t be paying anything for this nonsense. It is purely political. Not to mention the idiotic carbon tax.
A few billion here, a few billion there, and then we will be talking about real money.