Liz Truss vetoed campaign urging UK public to cut energy usage

Liz Truss vetoed a £15mn public information campaign urging British households to save energy this winter ahead of potential import shortages from Europe, government insiders have confirmed.

Business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg had prepared the “light-touch” campaign aimed at encouraging people to restrict energy usage ahead of a warning on Thursday by National Grid of rolling blackouts in the coming months in a worst-case scenario.

The initiative was signed off by Rees-Mogg but ultimately blocked by the prime minister. One senior government insider said: “Liz’s innate libertarianism stopped it; she doesn’t like telling people what to do.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on Friday said it had “no plans” to “tell the public to reduce usage for the sake of our energy supplies”.

Having for months called on the government to run a campaign advising households on how to reduce gas and electricity consumption and cut their bills in the process, industry bosses and academics have been left baffled by ministers’ refusal to do so.

Energy companies are concerned that households will resort to overly extreme measures because they fear the prospect of rolling three-hour blackouts.

Bill Bullen, chief executive of energy supplier Utilita, said: “I just don’t get it at all. Just about every other country in Europe has said ‘We are in a difficult situation here, it would be helpful if people use less energy’.”

Bullen added that it would be in the government’s interest to encourage a reduction in consumption, in view of its roughly £150bn energy subsidy package for households and businesses, which took effect on October 1.

But energy minister Graham Stuart told Sky News on Friday the government was “not a nanny-state government” and that there would be no public information campaign.

“We are not sending that out as a message. All of us have bills, of course, and the bills have gone up,” said Stuart, adding that a campaign would “probably make no difference”.

Under the £150bn scheme, suppliers can charge households no more than roughly 34p per kilowatt hour for electricity and 10.3p/KWH for gas, inclusive of value added tax.

The Treasury subsidises the difference between that level and the actual cost suppliers incur to procure the energy to serve customers.

Utilita’s Bullen said his was one of many companies trying to advise households on how best to save money and use less electricity, but he added: “There is always a slightly cynical reaction to an energy boss on the TV saying ‘Please use less energy’.”

Adam Bell, former head of energy strategy at BEIS, described the government’s decision as an “utter dereliction of duty”.

He added that he did not “understand at this moment of crisis why you wouldn’t to do everything you can” to reduce consumption, both to save money and improve energy security.