Axing EU energy laws now will save Brits billions of pounds – it’s too good an opportunity to miss
DEMOCRACY is the first fruit of Brexit. Voters now choose how they are governed and the power of the bureaucrat is being cut.
This is a daily advantage. Policy makers now think about what is best for the UK and those in power are accountable to the electors who put them there.
This essential and daily benefit is the most transformative aspect of leaving the European Union but ultimately it is how power is used that will see the fruit of Brexit ripen.
This is the challenge for politicians as it requires divergence from the EU’s culture of regulation and the protection of vested interests.
As every rule has a lobbyist who will campaign to protect it and often can throw money at supporting restrictive practices, politicians must be bold to grasp the freedom Brexit offers and put voters first.
Energy policy is a prime area for divergence.
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In his summer leadership campaign, Rishi Sunak promised to take VAT off domestic heating. This should happen.
It is much better for the Government not to tax people in the first place than to offer them a subsidy with their own money.
Five per cent lower heating costs would not solve the current problem, but it would help.
In the EU we signed up to an emissions trading scheme (ETS) which, madly, we have replicated from outside.
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This ought to be scrapped, which we are now free to do.
It makes all of our energy costs higher.
It falls on electricity generation, making the rise in the gas price more severe, it puts up the cost of refining oil so that diesel and petrol costs more. It is a second fuel duty.
Worse still, it risks putting energy-intensive industries, such as steel, out of business.
It lowers the British people’s standard of living and does not reduce carbon emissions, as it leads to more imports which are cheaper but emit abroad rather than in the UK.
To have left the EU and not to have abandoned a scheme that makes us poorer and colder is folly.
This is where accountability is so important, for politicians can no longer hide behind the EU’s skirts.
The ETS is not only now a self-imposed scheme — a failure to use a Brexit benefit — but it was imposed by a Conservative government.
ENCOURAGING GROWTH
It is this that makes the retained EU Law Bill so important.
This proposal, which is currently before the House of Commons, will lead to the expiry of every EU law that came in through directives and regulations, unless the Government actively wants to keep it.
The seal of democratic approval will have to be put on any of those rules from Brussels that we used to mock if we want to keep them.
There are more than 2,400 of these rules, each one listed on a government website.
None of them had any scrutiny before becoming law, they were decided upon behind closed doors in the EU and then had to be made domestic law.
Some of them were even opposed when they were introduced but the opposition was overruled.
These rules cover all areas of daily life and need to be changed to encourage competition and lower costs.
In an inflationary era, de-regulation helps keep prices down, while encouraging growth.
'SUPPLY SIDE REFORMS'
They are the famous “supply side” reforms. A major area of reform ought to be labour regulations.
The EU favoured a high level of state-imposed rules.
It is better to allow free negotiation between employers and employees, both of whom benefit from flexibility.
Workers earn more and employers can be more productive.
For example, it is said that the working time directive costs the NHS £3billion a year through agency and other costs.
Many detailed product rules should also be abolished.
Other countries outside the EU do not have them.
They stop product innovation that lowers costs for consumers and they assume that people cannot work out for themselves which product would be the most economic to run.
CUTTING PRICES
Removing detailed rules would allow imports from other countries of goods, boosting competition and cutting prices.
Rules that are a cost on business but have limited benefit should also be abolished.
There are hundreds of them, and what is the point of the “Footwear (indication of composition) Labelling Regulations 1995” or the costly “Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018” which applies unnecessarily to domestic travel?
Repealing laws of this kind would save businesses costs with no risk to consumers.
Then there are the financial services regulations that, if amended, would free up billions of pounds for the economy.
The Solvency II, which regulates the insurance industry, if altered would allow more competition, better value annuities for those retiring and help keep the UK at the centre of the global insurance industry. This would add to economic growth
Our membership of the EU was always about managing decline.
We joined fearing failure in 1973 and those who lack confidence in this great nation still wish to cling tightly to the EU even from the outside.
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Dealing with energy, employment, financial services and a slew of pettifogging regulations will save consumers billions of pounds, allow economic growth and wash away the current economic malaise.
It is too good an opportunity to miss.
5 BREXIT BOOSTS WE CAN DO NOW
- CUT heating bills by axing VAT
- LOWER gas prices by scrapping the emissions trading scheme
- SAVE the NHS billions by binning EU edicts
- SLASH cost for consumers by dumping product rules
- BOOST our pensions by changing insurance rules
