Hard-hit Brits are paying extra £2m to heat and light ’empty’ offices in Whitehall

BADLY HIT taxpayers have been hit by a second bombshell energy bill – to heat and light ’empty’ offices in Whitehall.

Gas and electricity bills for major government agencies rose by £2million last year – as most staff worked from home.

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Angry MPs said it was a double whammy as Brits struggle to pay their own bills.

The buildings still require electricity for the few security and maintenance workers on site.

energy bills for nine of them, they rose from £7.2m in the year before the pandemic to £9.1m in the following 12 months, according to figures collected under freedom of information laws.

And they will continue to increase as energy costs continue to rise.

MoD power increased from £3.6m to £4m, an extra £1,000 a day, despite fewer staff.

Ex-Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “It is amazing that the government should throw huge sums of money on office heating when few staff are bothering to show up.”

A government spokesman said many of the sites had been “used regularly” during the pandemic.