Treasury deletes ‘nonsense’ energy bills tweet after Martin Lewis’s request

HM Treasury deleted an energy announcement after consumer champion Martin Lewis called it “nonsense”.

The Treasury’s tweet said: “Thanks to the Growth Plan, a typical first-time buyer in London moving into a representative terraced house will save £11,250 on stamp duty and £1,050 on the household’s energy bills – and, if they earn £30,000, almost an additional £400 on tax.

“This is around £12,700 in total.”

However, the MoneySavingExpert founder hit back and said: “This is nonsense. To make that stamp-duty saving, you’d need to be buying a £500,000+ property.

“With 10% deposit, cheapest-fix mortgage would cost £2,400/mth (£28,000/yr). How can someone on £30k afford that.

“I am asking Treasury to remove.”

The tweet was deleted and a Treasury spokesperson said: “While the figures used were statistically accurate, we recognise that certain assumptions were made about the profile of the typical first-time buyer which were not reflected in this tweet.

“We take responsible messaging very seriously – which is why we have deleted the tweet in question.”

When interviewing Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp on Good Morning Britain, Lewis said: “This seems fundamentally irresponsible for the Treasury to be putting out this kind of statement in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”

Philip said he hadn’t seen the tweet but told Lewis: “You’re right to point out the anomaly between the salary and the house value and I’d be happy to take a look at it.”