The Energy Bill Revolution

Joint statement by National Energy Action (NEA) and the Energy Bill Revolution (EBR) campaign on the release of Policy Exchange’s report “Warmer Homes – Improving fuel poverty and energy efficiency policy in the UK” 

Both our organisations believe that the UK desperately needs a much more ambitious approach to domestic energy efficiency that can slash household energy bills, bring an end to fuel poverty, drive down carbon emissions and NHS costs, reduce winter deaths whilst significantly boosting the British economy. We also believe that no alternative investment can deliver so much. However, to bring about this necessary transformation, we urgently need a strong cross-party commitment that recognises that current policies are insufficient and a new funding stream will be needed in the next Parliament. There is already robust, independent evidence highlighting the benefits of this enhanced approach. Now we have supported Policy Exchange so they can investigate this evidence, explore the benefits of greater action and provide policy makers with recommendations which can also help inform the main political parties’ upcoming manifestos. 

The final report demonstrates why policy makers can no longer afford to ignore the significant opportunities of using energy efficiency as the main weapon to end fuel poverty, address major public health inequalities and permanently reduce energy bills. It also highlights that there are significant costs of deferring energy efficiency activity long into the future and Policy Exchange recognise the value of a whole-house, area based, retrofit strategy rather than relying on incremental improvements. Above all, the report continues to underline the major economic benefits of investing additional public funds; helping to significantly increase GDP and creating over 100,000 additional private sector jobs. We now hope the report will trigger each of the main political parties to commit to an adequate framework that can make our homes fit for the 21st Century.

The Policy Exchange report can be found at:  www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/category/item/warmer-homes-improving-fuel-poverty-and-energy-efficiency-policy-in-the-uk.