LIZ TRUSS’S new energy plan means too little help for families — and too much profit for oil and gas giants, union leaders warned today.

The new Prime Minister finally unveiled her emergency package, costing tens of billions of pounds, to help households and businesses amid rising energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis.

It includes holding energy bills at £2,500 — more than £500 above current rates and double those of a year ago — for two years.

The average energy bill was set to rise to £3,549 from next month when the price cap review came into place, before reaching up to £7,700 by April according to some forecasts.

Businesses, schools and hospitals will also get some support under the scheme, but for six months only.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to give more specifics during his fiscal announcement later this month.

Institute for Fiscal Studies deputy director Carl Emmerson suggested the cost of the scheme could be more than £100 billion in the first year alone.

But Ms Truss has refused to impose a windfall tax on the soaring profits of oil and gas giants and the plans will be paid through borrowing.

Campaigners, charities and trade unions have warned that the plan will not protect the poorest and most vulnerable that are already struggling.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that it is “frankly remarkable that the PM is asking workers to pay for massive energy company profits.

“The economy is broken and workers will see through this plan to boost profiteering yet again,” she said.

“I don’t think the irony escapes many. The reason we are held to ransom now by an over reliance on non-domestic energy is that a Conservative government privatised our energy.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that while freezing energy bills is essential for families and to protect jobs, the PM is “making the wrong people pay.”

Ms O’Grady said: “She should have imposed a much larger windfall tax on profiteering oil and gas giants.

“And she should have required all firms getting help with energy bills to commit to no lay-offs for the lifetime of the help, to protect livelihoods.”

She said that families need more help getting through the winter, adding: “That means a real plan to get wages rising, a big boost to universal credit, child benefit and pensions, and a massive rollout of home improvements to cut bills.

“And it’s time to bring energy retail into public ownership to make sure this crisis never happens again.”

GMB national secretary Andy Prendergast said the announcement “only scratches the surface” of what is needed for energy security.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said that the package does not offer additional support for millions of households who will be “left behind in fuel poverty” this winter.

He said: “Many of these people are struggling already and include those who are elderly, disabled or with pre-existing health conditions. Without more support to keep them warm this winter, the pressures on the NHS and social care system will increase.

“And without further investment in measures such as energy efficiency for those homes worst affected by fuel poverty, the plans will just be an expensive sticking plaster.”

Michael Clarke of the charity Turn2Us called for long-term reform to the economy and to stop growing inequality, while Debt Justice executive director Heidi Chow said that £2,500 in energy bills will still drive people into debt.

“The government must write off energy debts that have already built up to give people in debt a fighting chance of surviving this winter,” she said.

Action for Children said the plan is a “big intervention with a big hole in it,” and Save the Children warned it will not prevent families from reaching a crisis point.

And Sense chief executive Richard Kramer said the plan does not recognise the additional costs disabled households face, calling for targeted support and an uprate to benefits of the most vulnerable.

National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney criticised the shorter freeze for schools and colleges, saying it will “do nothing to mitigate the increases that have already happened.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Truss’s refusal to fund the plans with a windfall tax is “driven by dogma” and will mean “it’s working people who will pay for that.”

The PM also announced that a moratorium that has prevented shale gas extraction due to fears it can trigger earthquakes will be lifted in England, despite a lack of scientific evidence to suggest the process is safe.

Scottish Greens called Ms Truss’s plans “climate vandalism,” warning that “we can’t drill or frack our way out of a crisis.”

Anti-fracking campaigners in Lancashire said they are ready to take up a second fight against the process to extract gas and oil underground.

Nanas group activist Tina Rothery, 60, said: “We will pull out all the stops. This time, we won’t settle for a moratorium either.

“We’re just going to keep on hammering this until we get the proper ban on fracking.”

Protesters previously spent 1,000 days outside the Cuadrilla fracking site in Little Plumpton, near Blackpool, and were joined along the way by celebrity supporters including designer Vivienne Westwood and actor Emma Thompson.