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Will the government try to defer soaring energy costs to cushion bill-payers?
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This article could be Microeconomic or Macroeconomic - however, Faisal Iqbal is mainly looking at the macroeconomic implications for government spending in trying to smooth out the expected rise in energy prices in April. Households are likely to see the proportion of their incomes that they spend on energy to double.
Most analysts expect energy prices to rise by around 50%, but there's also an expectation that the government will somehow look to offset this. All of the usual suggestions are here - cutting VAT, removing environmental levies, and the possibility of some sort of 'cost deferral' mechanism with the government looking to either stagger price increases over 5 years, or with some form of upfront payment to offset the rising costs faced by energy suppliers.
The trade-off is about whether we want this to be short-term, or whether we're prepared to pay for this over 25 years. And, of course, the underlying problems with the market remain - not least a lack of storage facilities.