Commenting on the Prime Minister’s announcement of a review of “green levies”,  Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

“It’s irresponsible of the Prime Minister to blame fuel bill increases on investment in green energy.

“The main reason reason families are paying more is the increasing wholesale price of gas.  The Government’s own Committee on Climate Change has said that the costs of low-carbon measures have been small by comparison.

“The costs of gas – a finite resource – are expected to rise by 40% over the next few decades.   Nuclear power is also increasingly expensive yet  the Government is happy for billpayers to fund a lavish subsidy for EDF.

“By contrast, renewable technologies have seen dramatic price falls over the past few years.

“If the Prime Minister really wants to help families struggling with bills he should put in place measures to insulate homes up and down the country.  This could be funded by a windfall tax, and would create hundreds of thousands of jobs.”

“And to get bills down in the long term, we have to tackle the monopoly of the Big Six energy companies and start investing seriously in energy efficiency and renewables