LONDON (AP) — New British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced Thursday that her Conservative government will cap domestic energy prices for homes and businesses to ease a cost-of-living crisis that has left residents across the United Kingdom facing a bleak winter.

The moves are a huge government intervention in the economy by Truss, who sees herself as a small-state, free-market conservative. She says she favors tax cuts over handouts, but she has been forced to act by the scale of the crisis as Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent energy prices surging.