The Government announced today plans to reduce energy bills by £50. They say this will be achieved by:
- Moving the Warm Home Discount off energy bills on to general taxation
- Cutting the carbon saving element of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) by 34% and extending the scheme from 2015 to 2017 which in effect reduces the total funding for the scheme each year. However the annual funding to help the fuel poor make their homes more energy efficient under the Energy Company Obligation will be maintained at current levels of £540m / year.
- New energy efficiency incentives have also been announced to try to ensure that the amount of carbon saved by energy efficiency schemes is not reduced. These include a grant of up to £1000 for people moving home to make their home more energy efficient, incentives to help landlords raise energy efficiency standards in the worst insulated properties and increases in the funds available to Salix, an energy efficiency loan scheme for the public sector.
Ed Matthew, Director of the Energy Bill Revolution said:
“The UK housing stock is the most badly insulated in Western Europe and unless this is fixed we will never solve the energy bill crisis. Today’s announcement is more about re-arranging deck-chairs on the Titanic. Funding has already been cut for energy efficiency programmes since this Government came to power and at best the announcement today means no further cuts. What we need is a revolution in energy efficiency. The Government needs to make home insulation the UK’s number one infrastructure priority.”
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