Cost of living plan: Second homes in Leeds to receive over £865k to help with energy bills under Rishi Sunak’s plans

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the £400 energy bill rebate on Thursday as part of a range of measures to tackle the cost of living crisis.

All households will receive this rebate - even ones that are second, third, or subsequent properties.

Under the plans every home in England, Scotland and Wales will receive an automatic £400 discount on their energy bills from October.

Mr Sunak has doubled the previous offer of a £200 discount, announced in February, and has also changed the scheme into a grant rather than a loan to be repaid.

It will go to every home regardless of need – including second homes, with those who own more than two standing to benefit multiple times over.

There are more than two thousand official second homes in Leeds, according to figures gathered by NationalWorld.

If each receives a £400 energy discount, the total bill to the Government will come to approximately £865,600.

Data shows that there are 364,036 households across Leeds with a £400 discount for each leading to a government bill of over £145 million.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) described the overall plan as “a genuinely big package of support”.

But IFS director Paul Johnson did question whether the universal approach of delivering some of Mr Sunak’s policies was the best method.

“Whether it’s needed for all households, I think, is more of a difficult point,” he told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday.

“£100 off for each household in the country costs, each £100, costs something like £3 billion and a lot of that money, frankly, will go to households who don’t desperately need it.

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it, but won’t necessarily need it.”

He added: “It really will mean a lot of people who don’t need this help will get it - people who are on quite high incomes and, indeed, the very, very large numbers of households who saved a great deal over the Covid period.”

There are over 301,000 official second homes across Britain, according to figures gathered from the respective nations’ governments.

If each receives a £400 energy discount, the total bill to the Government will come to £120.5 million.