The major frustration of the summer has been the refusal of the government to act on the spectre, then reality, of a massive energy price hike until a new Prime Minister was in place.
Well, today is the day when the winner of the Conservative Party leadership contest will be announced and a new figure, most likely Liz Truss, will be in the top job. It’ll probably also mean a new Chancellor.
Whoever is in charge, they’ve got to hit the ground running, and top of their agenda this afternoon must surely be a plan to help with rising costs and bills, particularly the cost of gas and electricity.
They’ve had plenty of time to come up with options, so there no excuse for remaining quiet.
What any kind of help will look like is hard to say. There’s been lots of talk from the Truss camp that she doesn’t like ‘handouts’, preferring instead to cut taxes, with changes to National Insurance and VAT the frontrunners.
Unless she U-turns on this it could mean those most likely to benefit are the well off, as those that earn and spend more will be in a better position to benefit from those kinds of cuts. Without targeted support, vulnerable and poorer households will continue to bear the brunt of higher bills as part of their total income.
Perhaps we’ll see one of the mooted prize freeze policies implemented, though they’ll likely mean we’ll keep paying higher bills for the long term, even if actual prices fall.
The next PM and Chancellor also need to do something to support businesses who don’t even have the ‘protection’ of the price cap. Shops, pubs, restaurants and more could close their doors completely if they can’t cover their bills, or pass on prices to customers.
I’d hope we hear something in the coming days, but all we know is that Truss has told us she will take immediate action within the week if appointed. The longer it’s left, the more people will understandably panic ahead of the new energy price cap’s start on October 1.
But even an immediate announcement will likely prove too late for changes or support to be put in place in time. There will almost certainly be a higher bill to pay for the first month, if not October and even November, so keep focusing on ways to save elsewhere until we know more.
Andy's Best Buys: Cash ISAs catching up
Virgin Money have released a 1.75% paying easy-access ISA for current account customers, making it not just the top-paying ISA, but pretty competitive with all easy-access accounts (the best one is currently at 2.1%).
The benefit of an ISA is the interest earned is tax free, though they’ve been largely irrelevant for years since most of us get a Personal Savings Allowance of up £1,000 (depending on what level tax you pay) for money held in non-ISAs. But for those earning large sums of interest from their savings, and if rates to continue to improve, it might not be a bad thing to ringfence some cash in an ISA to guarantee tax won’t be due on any returns.
Just remember there’s a £20,000 annual ISA allowance, and though that can be split across cash, stocks and shares, innovative finance and Lifetime ISAs, you can only pay into one of each in a year. The Virgin Money ISA allows you to transfer over savings from other ISAs, so you’ll be able to get this better rate on existing pots of cash.
You will however need a current account with the bank. If you don’t already have this it’s worth checking out the latest switching deals, too.
Latest ISA best buys
Virgin Money 1.75%
Gatehouse Bank 1.75%
Paragon Bank 1.65% (triple access)
Skipton Building Society 1.6%
Coventry Building Society 1.55%
For more details on these switch offers head to becleverwithyourcash.com/savings
Andy Webb is an award-winning blogger and podcaster from Be Clever With Your Cash. Follow Andy on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram via @andyclevercash
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source https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/05/the-new-prime-minister-will-need-energy-to-tackle-price-hikes-17296906/
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