Ahead of Parliament’s return this week, Ofgem announced that, once again, energy bills will be going up.

With Britain already facing some of the highest consumer energy prices in the world – more than double those in the United States – this is the last thing families and businesses need as the colder months approach.

The new Prime Minister has repeatedly said he intends to deliver Labour’s 2024 manifesto. Yet one of its clearest promises was to cut household energy bills by £300. Instead, with this latest increase, bills have risen by a total of £367 since the election.

The picture is even worse than that. Without a £7 billion taxpayer-funded intervention to keep prices lower, the increase would have reached around £562 a year for the average household.

This comes on top of a string of unwanted or costly decisions from Labour, from trying to hand away the Chagos Islands to taxing family farms and increasing the cost of employing young people. At a time when household budgets are already stretched, rising energy bills only add to the pressure.

The Prime Minister has appointed a new Energy Secretary to oversee Britain through his first winter, but there is little comfort in Labour’s approach. Ministers continue to insist that net zero policies, carbon pricing and renewable subsidies have little impact on energy costs. Many people struggling to pay their bills will find that increasingly difficult to accept.

The Conservatives take a different view. We believe scrapping the Carbon Tax, ending renewable subsidies and removing VAT from domestic energy bills would reduce household costs by around £200 a year.

The impact of high energy prices is something I hear about constantly across Farnham, Bordon, Haslemere, Liphook and our surrounding villages.

After Labour cut Winter Fuel Payments, I held a pensioner super surgery in Grayshott and met many older residents worried about how they would afford to heat their homes.

Those fears have not gone away for the countless vulnerable people I have spoken to since then. Local businesses of every kind – from pubs and cafés to care providers and farms – also continue to tell me that soaring energy costs remain one of the biggest pressures they face.

Britain needs an energy policy that keeps bills affordable while protecting our long-term energy security.

That means taking practical steps to reduce costs now, alongside investing in our own North Sea resources to strengthen domestic supply, support jobs and generate tax revenues for public services.

The Prime Minister has spoken often about easing the pressure on working people. As households prepare for another expensive winter, now is the time for those promises to become action.