Cabinet minister admits gas standing charges could just be added to unit prices - potentially hiking bills for bigger families and pensioners

Andy Burnham 's suggestion of axeing gas standing charges could mean simply adding them to the unit costs, a Cabinet minister said today. Miatta Fahnbulleh spoke out after the PM's surprise announcement that he has instructed her and Chancellor John Healey to look at removing the fee to cut bills. The Net Zero Secretary said she was examining 'all the options' and argued that the public 'absolutely hates' not having control over the fixed fee added to energy bills and that 'even shifting it into the unit rate gives people that agency'. But speaking to reporters in Westminster today she admitted that low-income consumers who use large amounts of energy could be left worse off if the costs simply moved to the unit rate part of the gas bill. She also raised the prospect of these people receiving taxpayers money to help them cope after the change, saying: 'You need to think about mitigations.' Mr Burnham used Prime Minister's Questions yesterday to reveal he wanted the two ministers to investigate and report back to MPs as soon as possible. Miatta Fahnbulleh spoke out after the PM's surprise announcement that he has instructed her and Chancellor John Healey to look at removing the fee to cut bills Mr Burnham used Prime Minister's Questions yesterday to reveal he wanted the two ministers to investigate and report back to MPs as soon as possible Standing charges are a fixed daily fee added to energy bills, regardless of how much gas or electricity a customer uses. The standing charge does not pay for the energy itself but covers the cost of delivering gas and electricity to homes and businesses – including the cost of essential maintenance and infrastructure upgrades. Campaigners have urged the Government to make plans to support all households with energy costs this winter, with forecasters warning household bills could soar by almost another £300 from January. Ms Fahnbulleh, who was appointed to head the energy brief by Mr Burnham in July, said making energy more affordable for households and businesses was her top priority. “Candidly, we will win or lose the next election on our ability to make progress on the cost of living,” she said. On removing gas bill standing charges, Ms Fahnbulleh told reporters: 'We are looking at the options. The thing I do know is that the public absolutely hate standing charge. 'It is a control question, that thing that before I even use it as energy you are charging x amounts, people just find that really egregious and their ability to manage their energy bills by deciding how much they want to use on their terms is essentially taken away from them. 'Even shifting to the unit rate gives people back agency. What the modelling suggests is that actually for a big stack of low income to middle income households it does mean a reduction in their bills. 'There are some people that will be impacted negatively because they are essentially low income, high users, so you need to think about the mitigations. 'But ... the thing he is very clear on is that we can't faff around we have to get on with it, so watch this space.'