Energy fatcats to pocket huge sums from taxpayer as pensioners set to lose vital winter fuel allowance
TWO of the world’s richest foreign energy company bosses are to pocket huge sums from the British taxpayer — while 10million pensioners are set to lose their winter fuel allowance.
Ignacio Sanchez Galan, from Spain’s Iberdrola, and Mads Nipper, president of Danish company Ørsted, were this week handed slices of 131 wind, solar and tidal project contracts subsidised to the tune of £1.5billion.
It means the Government will pay a minimum price for the electricity generated in return for turbines being built as part of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s mission to turn Britain into a clean energy superpower by 2030.
Meanwhile MPs will vote on Thursday on cutting £300 payments to all but the poorest of pensioners to save £1.4billion a year.
Rebel Labour MP Rosie Duffield called the cutback “brutal”.
She added: “Human life is our job to protect. We know that these people are going to feel cold and it will affect their health.
“My biggest worry is we are going to see people die.”
The latest money-spinning contracts are for Hornsea 3 and Hornsea 4 wind farms, off the East Coast.
Hornsea 3 will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm and could provide power for almost three million homes.
Iberdrola, which runs Scottish Power, will rake in an estimated revenue of £200million a year.
Executive chairman Mr Galan, 73, is already worth £203million and last year earned £11.5million.
He and his wife Maria Isabel Garcia-Tabernero, 63, have three Spanish mansions, including one worth £10million.
They like to organise trophy hunts.
Sustainable power company Ørsted will see revenues up to £925million a year by providing power to as many as five million homes.
Mr Nipper made £2.8million last year.
He has a £3.4million villa in Copenhagen plus another property in one of Denmark’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
The father of two enjoys drinking vintage champagne with wife Gitte.
Dennis Reed, from over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, said: “The Government is going for the wrong targets. They need to be looking at energy firms and oil companies making huge profits.”
Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith said: “It’s ironic that Labour is like a corrupt Robin Hood, taking from the poor to give to the rich.”