Miliband's energy prices pledge at odds with earlier prediction

Labour leader Ed Miliband's promise to hold down energy prices is at odds with the prediction he himself once made as energy secretary in 2009.

Four years ago, at the fag end of the Gordon Brown administration, he warned starkly: "There is no low-cost energy future."

The price of fossil fuels was likely to rise in the coming years amid global competition, he admitted. The alternative, renewable green energy, would also be expensive.

But at the time, he argued it was necessary to prevent the environmental consequences of rising sea levels caused by higher temperatures: "The costs of climate change if we don't stop it are going to be enormous."

In the intervening years, however, the politics of energy have changed - and Mr Miliband has adjusted his message accordingly.

The opinion polls show climate change is less of a priority for many voters, while the "cost of living crisis" has soared up the political agenda.

Now the Labour leader believes that there is a low-cost energy future, or rather one where the relentless rise in power bills will cease; for 20 months at least.

In his conference speech in 2009, Mr Miliband mentioned bills only once, and that was only in relation to the "vulnerable". Now everyone's energy bills are a persistent element of his rhetoric.

Attention is likely to focus on his previous record in the energy department, and whether any of his policies have caused bills to rise.

Policies introduced by Mr Miliband as energy secretary include the feed-in tariff, which subsidises small-scale power generation, and the Community Energy Saving Programme, an insulation scheme. Both have added to household bills.

Allies of Mr Miliband insist that his emphasis on bills is not a Damascene conversion. The Labour 2010 manifesto promised "increased competition among energy suppliers" to help consumers. Since then, the party has promised to overhaul regulator Ofgem and separately create an energy "pool" to help break the dominance of the Big Six operators.

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Some critics now fear that the energy companies will put up bills just before the general election to neutralise the Miliband threat. One of his legacies, however, is that he gave Ofgem extra powers to tackle any such price rise not linked to wholesale price movements.

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