Cost of living: NI taskforce to explore £400 energy bill discount options

Nadhim Zahawi will meet Stormont ministers and the Utility Regulator virtually on Monday

The Treasury is setting up a joint taskforce to explore how best households in Northern Ireland can receive a £400 discount on energy bills this autumn.

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi met Stormont ministers on Monday about the issue.

Households in Great Britain will start receiving it from October.

Stormont politicians have called for the same timetable in Northern Ireland, but there are complications due to the lack of a fully functioning executive.

Northern Ireland is also in a different energy market to the rest of the UK.

Following a virtual meeting on Monday, the Treasury said the new taskforce would be made up of officials from the UK government and Stormont ministers.

"We need to keep the momentum up to get equivalent energy support to people in Northern Ireland and that's why today I've launched a joint taskforce to present practical delivery options back to ministers," the chancellor said.

"No option is off the table. We've got our noses to the grindstone, we're making progress, and we have a shared objective with minsters in Northern Ireland to get this off the ground as soon as possible."

Disappointment over delay

A series of "regular meetings" is expected to take place until the issue is resolved.

But speaking after her talks with Mr Zahawi, Stormont's Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said an urgent response was needed.

"I'm concerned that a workable solution has not yet been agreed by the Department for the Economy and the British Treasury, which would get the £400 energy payment out the door to every household in the north," she said.

"We are approaching an autumn and winter which will be extremely difficult for workers and families as the price of heating and lighting homes continues to soar."

Ms Hargey called on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to "put the interests of ordinary people first" by ending its boycott of the executive.

The DUP Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said he was disappointed that the Treasury had not made more progress on a plan to distribute the discount by making the payments to energy companies, who will then take the discount directly off customers' bills.

"I don't want people in Northern Ireland to have to wait any longer than this than they need to, certainly no longer than those in the rest of the UK," he said.

"We presented a solution that I believe can work. The Utility Regulator had very detailed plans about how this could be operationalised in Northern Ireland, and now it's time to move ahead with that."

Household energy bills have increased substantially over the past year and further rises are predicted

That plan was mentioned by Mr Zahawi during a visit to Belfast last week, when he met Ms Hargey, Mr Lyons and Northern Ireland's Utility Regulator.

Mr Lyons said at the time that would be the "quickest way" to ensure households in Northern Ireland benefitted from the scheme.

But Ms Hargey said there were still "legal issues" to resolve.

It is understood the requirement for a 90-day public consultation by Northern Ireland's Utility Regulator will not be needed if the Treasury delivers the scheme.

Stormont's Department of Finance has said that if the Treasury ultimately provides the £400 energy bill discount to households directly, it anticipates a "Barnett consequential of £164.8m" announced in February will be reversed.

The Barnett formula is used to calculate additional funding when there are changes to UK government spending that affects devolved services.

But without a functioning executive at Stormont, money allocated from Westminster that way cannot be spent.

Stormont's Department of Finance has said that the pot of funding unable to be spent totals more than £435m.