Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Danny Alexander: ‘UK ministers have buried plan to cut north power bills

Danny Alexander
Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander has accused the UK Government of “burying” plans to slash electricity bills for thousands of families in the north and north-east.

The ex-chief secretary to the Treasury claimed his former Conservative coalition partners were doing “deep damage” to the Highlands by abandoning the work he did in office.

He spoke out after it emerged that ministers have privately shelved a project designed to ensure consumers in the region no longer pay more for power than every other region in Britain.

A year ago the Press and Journal launched a campaign calling for an end to the “postcode lottery” distribution system – and has won the backing of energy giant SSE, leading politicians and powerful regulators.

Former Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Mr Alexander and Chancellor George Osborne responded at the Budget in March by announcing that officials would carry out a consultation on the cost of electricity in northern Scotland over the summer.

They said that from next year they planned to peg the costs paid by consumers to those in the second most expensive region in the UK, saving each household in Grampian and the Highlands and islands an average of £30 a year.

The move was widely welcomed as a first step towards a fairer system.

But the Press and Journal understands that the consultation was not carried out and that the UK Government is no longer committed to the change, following the election in May.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) would only say that electricity prices would be considered as part of the regular review of the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme, which was established in 2005 to try to ease some of the pressure on north consumers.

Mr Alexander, who had driven forward the plan before losing his seat to the SNP’s Drew Hendry in May, has been left furious by the U-turn.

He said last night: “This shows the deep damage being done to the Highlands without Liberal Democrat MPs and without Lib Dems in charge of Decc.

“I pushed this review through to address rapidly an unfairness in electricity prices in the north.

“That Decc are now burying this idea shows, once again, how the Highlands are being let down by the combination of Tory Decc ministers and impotent nationalist MPs.”

Councillor Angus McCormack, chairman of Western Isles Poverty Action Group, said: “This is very disappointing from the point of view of consumers in the north.

“It only adds to the fact that the wholesale prices have been dropping in electricity in recent months and there has been no reaction to that.

“All SSE have done is flatline prices and what we are looking for is to reduce the prices and their arguments against that have been diminishing over time.

“They (the big six energy suppliers) have huge profits and they should be passing on these benefits to the consumers and to hear that the UK Government is not going through with their plans is very disappointing.”

Families in the Highlands and islands, Grampian and Tayside pay the highest bills in the UK because of a regional system for distribution costs.

Asked whether it was carrying out the consultation and changes announced in the Budget, a spokeswoman for Decc highlighted the existing Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme.

“We are committed to supporting hardworking families and businesses across the country to keep their bills low,” she said.

“This year we have spent £57million to protect bill-payers in the north of Scotland from the high costs of distributing electricity.

“We will be launching a public consultation at the end of this year to ensure our funding scheme provides the right amount of support for bill payers.”

The government is required to review the Hydro Benefit Replacement Scheme subsidy every three years.