How will Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak deal with rising utility bills?

This issue has become a 'key battleground' in the Conservative leadership contest

Pressure builds on Tory leadership hoping to develop plans to address rising energy costs after latest projections suggest Households in the UK face an average of more than £5,000 in claims per year next year.

Warning from consultancy Auxilione came yesterday when energy bosses met Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Nadim Zahawi. Negotiations failed to reach an agreement, and Johnson simply "shifted the blame onto his successor," said The Mirror.

How to deal with soaring energy prices has become "a key battleground in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister in September," said Paul Seddon, political reporter for the BBC . said.

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Today, Mr Rishi Sunak, writing forThe Times , has pledged up to £10 billion to mitigate the impact. will bear the cost of this October price increase, covering the total cost of higher energy bills for up to 16 million vulnerable people.

"When we enter 10 Downing Street early next month, we have no doubt that we will provide much-needed assistance to those in need," he wrote. "Parents and pensioners are losing sleep over the looming bill," he said, adding, "I get it. I get it and I have plans to get it."

Having a change of heart, he said he might need to "stop or suspend some things in government" to fund his plans. It said it was preparing for "some limited, temporary, one-off things" and going into debt as a last resort to get through this winter. "I still like how he wins the cost of living debate," said Jane Merrick, policy editor of the i paper. Make a difference on September 5th when the leaders are announced."

At a Conservative rally in Cheltenham last night, his rival Liz Truss said he would end the moratorium onfracking. "We need to ensure that fracking is done in some countries where there is local support," the foreign secretary said.

Profit is not a "foul word," she says, raising windfall taxes onenergy companies to fund government assistance to vulnerable households. declined the call. Truss reiterated that he is "absolutely" against windfall taxes.

The Telegraph said, "It remains unclear whether there is any local support to start drilling," saying that her fracking The paper's sketch writer Madeleine Grantsaid Truss' speech was "more focused on mood music than concrete content" and had "a puzzling promise." ", but added that it was "rather less about resolving the energy crisis."

Truss pledged an emergency budget in September that included tax cuts, including Sunak's 1.25% national insurance premium increase,but this was "the lowest in the country." Offer someone only £59 'wages', FT.

What happens next?

The prime minister will prepare a list of options for dealing with the economic crisis and present it to the new prime minister. This includes raising and expanding the £5 billion windfall tax on oil and gas producers introduced by Sunak.

Government energy profits levies are now The BBC notes that it applies only to oil and gas companies, and there is speculation that it will extend to power producers.

ButBloombergreported that Neptune Energy Group's boss warned that the UK's windfall tax would put a "big question mark" on future investment.

A senior government official toldPolitico that the windfall tax is best thought of as "the sword of Damocles." They added: “It is wrong to think that [the windfall tax] is all and final. The options we are considering are limited to just getting businesses to do something

There will also be pressure to extract more from oil and gas producers by reducing investment quotas. But Education Secretary James Cleverley has reiterated this week that no "very big policy change decisions" will be made before Prime Minister Johnson leaves Downing Street in his September. increase.