It is necessary for government to offer some cash help to business to stave off more closures forced by sky high energy bills. I do not welcome more public spending on subsidies, but it is the price of failure of the EU energy policy we have been following.
I want the Business Secretary tomorrow to set out a much better U.K. energy strategy that puts domestic self sufficiency and security of supply back as the prime aim, replacing the 2019 EU legal framework based on more imports from EU countries via interconnectors, interdependence and ultimate reliance on EU imports of Russian gas. Relying on more imports from an energy short Union of states was always a dangerous risk to run. The EU claimed to put decarbonisation as the main aim, only to need more coal and gas when the wind refused to blow.
In a necessary drive to cut the costs of energy he should confirm the removal of the green levies, suspend the carbon tax and carbon emissions trading , with the Chancellor removing VAT on domestic fuel .We need a new regulatory framework for power generation with more back up for intermittent renewables.
There are so many industries damaged by EU laws still in place in our law codes. The Business Secretary could abolish the droit du suite and VAT impositions the EU used to divert part of the global art market from London to New York.Maybe they thought it would help Paris but it just made the whole EU less competitive.
He could lower costs of buying a home by removing anti money laundering checks from any U.K. citizen buying and selling their main home and using a U.K. regulated bank. He could make energy certificates for homes a matter of choice for buyers and sellers.
He could work with Defra to use farm grants to promote growing more food here and to foster investment in more glasshouses and new farming techniques instead of subsidising wilding policies, and relying on more imports from the EU.
He could simplify the expensive bureaucracy created by the EU data protection legislation.
He could repeal the EU Ports Regulation which was widely opposed by our ports when it was introduced. It gets in the way of port investment and expansion.
He could repeal the railway rules which require the separation of track ownership from train ownership.Integrated ownership of routes by private companies should be an option.
He with the Treasury should allow more people self employed tax status, removing the penal elements of IR 35.
He should repeal the on line digital tax.
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