Tax rises 'should not pay for nuclear power'

Date: 20th October 2009

A consumer group has criticised suggestions that nuclear power plants are to be set up across the country with the help of taxation rises and levies.

The Guardian reported last week that the government is planning to build the UK's first nuclear reactors in more than two decades and intends to subsidise their construction with higher levies on energy bills.

A spokesman for the government told the newspaper that although there are no official plans for such a move as yet, it could not be ruled out in the future.

Matthew Sinclair, research director at the Taxpayers' Alliance, said that energy bills are already on the rise due to climate change policies.

"With the poor and elderly spending the highest proportion of their income on electricity, [the] tax on the worst off needs to be cut, not added to," he noted.

"Any additional levy which pushes up the price of electricity will cause serious hardship for taxpayers, increase fuel poverty and add to winter mortality."