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Ed Miliband: Labour would freeze energy prices Ed Miliband: Labour would freeze energy prices
(35 minutes later)
Household energy prices will be frozen for two years if Labour wins the next election, Ed Miliband has said. Labour would freeze gas and electricity bills for every home and business in the UK for 20 months if it wins the 2015 election, Ed Miliband has said.
In his speech to the Labour conference in Brighton he also said the big energy firms would be split up and governed by a new tougher regulator. The big energy firms would be split up and governed by a new tougher regulator to give people "a fairer deal".
Mr Miliband, who also outlined measures to help small businesses, said Labour wanted a "fair deal" for people being hit by the rising cost of living. Labour says the move will save average households £120 and businesses £1,800 - but cost the energy giants £4.5bn.
"Britain can do better than this - we are better than this," he said. The Labour leader said energy firms had been overcharging "for too long" and it was time to "reset" the market.
He also pledged to help about 1.5 million small businesses in England by reversing a planned business rates rise if Labour wins the next election. Speaking without notes at his party's annual conference in Brighton, Mr Miliband set out his vision of how "Britain can do better" under Labour, with an economy that works for "ordinary people once again".
The move would be paid for by reversing a planned UK-wide cut in corporation tax for "big business" in 2015. He also said Labour would support measures to give 16 and 17-year-olds votes in general elections.
The move would apply automatically only to businesses in England, but money would be given to the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland so they could follow suit. 'Race to the top'
Building on his vision of a One Nation Labour Party, set out in his conference speech last year, Mr Miliband pushed the case for an economy based on higher skills and wages - and the "dynamism" of small business. He pledged to take action on what he has called Britain's "cost of living crisis", setting out an alternative vision of Britain's economy to that pursued by the Conservatives, with higher skills and wages.
In other developments: "David Cameron talks about Britain being in a global race. But what he doesn't tell you is that he thinks the only way Britain can win is for you to lose."
In his speech he told Labour activists: "David Cameron talks about Britain being in a global race. But what he doesn't tell you is that he thinks the only way Britain can win is for you to lose." Mr Miliband said that means "the lowest wages, the worst terms and conditions, and the fewest rights at work - a race to the bottom", adding: "The only way we can win is in a race to the top."
He said that means "the lowest wages, the worst terms and conditions, and the fewest rights at work - a race to the bottom", adding: "The only way we can win is in a race to the top." In an upbeat speech peppered with swipes at David Cameron and George Osborne for being out touch and lacking aspiration for the country, Mr Miliband repeated the phrase "Britain can do better than this" to cheers and applause from Labour activists.
He pledged to take action on what he has called Britain's "cost of living crisis", setting out an alternative vision of Britain's economy to that pursued by the Conservatives. Explaining what he believes has gone wrong with the economy under the coalition, he said: "Too many of the jobs we're creating in this country are just too low paid, too many of the gains in our economy are just scooped up by the privileged few, including those big bonuses, and too often you are left being charged over the odds.
"Too many of the jobs we're creating in this country are just too low paid, too many of the gains in our economy are just scooped up by the privileged few, including those big bonuses, and too often you are left being charged over the odds.
"They used to say 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. Now the rising tide just seems to lift yachts.""They used to say 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. Now the rising tide just seems to lift yachts."
Business rates are due to rise in April 2015. If a Labour government came to power in May 2015, it would immediately reverse that rise for small firms so their rates fell back to 2014 levels. That rate would then be frozen for 2016. The Labour leader has used his week in Brighton to set out some of the policies on which he will fight the next election but saved what is likely to be one of the centrepieces of the manifesto for his big speech.
Up to 1.5 million businesses with properties worth an annual rent of £50,000 or less would benefit, Labour believes. He vowed to abolish energy watchdog Ofgem and replace it with a new regulatory regime that ensures customers get a "fair deal".
The party claims this would save small businesses, such as pubs, shops and hi-tech start-ups, an average of nearly £450 over two years, with some firms saving £2,000. "We will legislate for this in our first Queen's Speech and it will come into effect in 2017," the Labour leader told activists.
The party says it would pay for this by reversing a planned cut in corporation tax from 21% to 20% which is due to come into force in April 2015. "But in the meantime I am not willing to just stand by. So the next Labour government will freeze gas and electricity prices until the start of 2017.
It says this would affect 80,000 large firms across the whole of the UK. "Your bills will be frozen, benefitting millions of families and millions of businesses. That's what I mean by a government that fights for you, that's what I mean when I say: Britain can do better than this.
'Cost jobs' "The companies won't like it because it will cost them money. But they have been overcharging people for too long because of a market that doesn't work. It is time to reset the market."
Labour aides said that while small businesses had seen their rates rise in recent years, big businesses had seen their corporation taxes fall by £6bn since 2010. New towns
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Miliband wanted the proposal to show he was "on the side of the small guy". Labour says the energy giants have been overcharging customers to the tune of £3.9bn since 2010 by not passing on reductions in wholesale prices to consumers.
But the Institute of Directors said it would apply only to very small firms and expressed concern that even a small rise in corporation tax would send the wrong signal to potential foreign investors. The party denies that the policy is a return to discredited "price controls" of the 1970s, arguing it is a temporary measure aimed at helping consumers while the party sets up a new regulator, which would force firms to openly sell their wholesale energy in a pooled market.
The director general of the CBI, John Cridland, said cutting corporation tax was "one of the coalition's greatest achievements, sending a clear signal internationally that the UK is open for business". In his speech Mr Miliband also pledged to help small firms by freezing business rates in England, paid for by halting a planned increase in UK-wide corporation tax for large companies.
In recent days, the opposition has announced a series of initiatives intended to relieve what it says is the continuing squeeze on low and middle-income families, including more free childcare and a commitment to "strengthen" the minimum wage. And he said that by 2020 under Labour 200,000 houses would be built a year, with a fresh generation of new towns and "garden cities".
Ahead of Mr Miliband's speech, former minister David Lammy warned the party had lost momentum over recent months and could not win the next election unless it improved its economic credibility. An incoming Labour government would also scrap the £1,3bn Energy Companies Obligation, launched earlier this year to make the energy giants improve efficiency, and replace it with a more "cost-effective" regime.
But Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman told the BBC that the momentum was with Labour, with membership rising. Every Labour activists in the hall was due to be given a copy of a book called One Nation Economy after the leader's speech.
She added: "Since 2010 when we lost the general election we have won 1,950 new council seats all around the country."
For the Conservatives, business minister Matthew Hancock said: "Ed Miliband is calling for a tax rise on business that would cost jobs.
"And because he would reverse our planning reforms, the only way Ed Miliband could deliver his promise to build more houses is to spend more and borrow more.
"Tax rises on businesses and the same old Labour policy of more borrowing and more debt would undermine the recovery. And it's hardworking people who would pay the price with their jobs, higher taxes and higher mortgage rates."