Danny Alexander signals hardening of party's position on renewable energy and says there will be no compromise
The Liberal Democrats will resist Conservative plans to to cut green taxes that add to the public's energy bills, Danny Alexander has said.
The chief secretary to the Treasury told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show that the taxes, which amount to about 4% of the average bill, are vital to Britain's long-term commitments to funding renewable sources of energy and are a fixed Liberal Democrat policy.
His stance has signalled a hardening of the entrenched positions between the two coalition parties over how to cut Britain's energy bills. It follows a poll that showed public support for David Cameron's plan to "roll back" green levies on customer bills.
Alexander said: "What we are doing at the moment – and will continue to do for a number of weeks in time for the autumn statement – is that we are looking at every aspect of what contributes to people's energy bills to make sure that in all of these cases people are not paying a penny more than they need to.
"But you are absolutely right, our commitments to green energy and our commitments to renewable energy are vitally important and they are not something that Liberal Democrats will compromise on."
Asked if the 4% of energy bills that are estimated to come from green energy bills will remain, while the other 4-5% for social purposes may be moved to general taxation, he said: "We are looking at all options, we haven't made any decisions on either of those things at the moment."
Alexander added that he has been angered by accusations that energy companies may have exploited tax loopholes following a report in the Independent on Sunday that claims that Scotia Gas, half of which is owned by SSE, had avoided up to £72.5m through the loophole.
"I'm livid about that. It is not something that is acceptable at any time, but particularly when people are going through tough spending choices." he told the Andrew Marr Show. He added that there would be new commitments to addressing aggressive tax avoidance in the autumn statement.
There were further negative headlines for the 'big six' energy companies after a whistleblower told the Observer British Gas has made £20m in just one year recently from credit owed to customer accounts.
A Survation report for the Mail on Sunday showed 60% opposed the taxes, compared with 18% in favour; and 44% backed the prime minister's approach to the energy market, compared with 33% supporting Ed Miliband.
On Wednesday, Cameron announced an annual competition review to examine the cost of green regulations and the level of profits.
The prime minister said: "I can tell the house today that we will be having a proper competition test carried out over the next year to get to the bottom of whether this market can be more competitive. I want more companies, I want better regulation, I want a better deal for consumers. But yes, we also need to roll back the green charges that he [Miliband] put in place as energy secretary."
The review, which will be carried out by the Office of Fair Trading and the new Competition and Markets Authority, is to be announced this week in the annual energy statement. The chancellor, George Osborne, is to unveil any changes to levies in his autumn statement.
Cameron last week came under fire over Sir John Major's call for a windfall tax on the excess profits of Britain's big six energy companies.
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