Paul Scully has admitted that the government has no plans to bail out businesses whose business models “cannot be sustained” following the energy crisis that has seen the price of wholesale gas spike, and a number of energy firms – including People’s Energy, Utility Point, and PfP Energy – collapse.

Scully did, however, promise to protect consumers. He told the BBC:

“We want to make sure they have continuity of supply. We want to make sure that we can keep their prices as keen as possible. We’re doing that through the price cap, through the warm homes discount and through cold wet weather payments as well.” 

The price cap doesn’t alter the laws of supply and demand. Who could have predicted that trying to buck the market with price controls could result in this kind of situation…?