This is a news item from UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (ISR).
The Energy Crisis Commission (ECC) has called on the Government to take urgent action to reduce electricity costs and accelerate home energy efficiency ahead of the next Budget. One year on from its report, Protecting the UK from a Future Energy Crisis, electricity bills remain among the highest in Europe, while the costs of upgrading infrastructure continue to rise.
Jim Watson, Director of ISR and independent ECC Commissioner, highlighted the ongoing challenges. “Household bills are still too high,” he said. “Whilst the government is doing a lot to make our energy system more resilient over the medium term, more immediate action is also needed. More could be done to reduce the price of electricity, for example by moving policy costs to general taxation and by reforming the electricity market. There is also an urgent need for a comprehensive and practical plan to improve the energy efficiency of homes. This plan needs to learn lessons from recent policy failures and the much more successful policies that have been implemented in other European countries.”
The ECC praised progress in the energy sector, including the rollout of renewables, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries, as well as reforms to grid connections and planning processes. However, the commission stressed that the forthcoming Warm Homes Plan, a key policy for improving home insulation and cutting energy use, must make it easy for all households, particularly low-income and vulnerable families, to improve energy efficiency.
The ECC also recommended that policy costs currently added to electricity bills could be shifted to general taxation, lowering household bills and supporting adoption of cleaner heating technologies. Without these actions, the commission warned, electrification and the transition to clean energy may stall.
The commission’s one-year review found significant advances, including record levels of clean technology installations and improved market protections, but called for clearer plans on minimum standards, grant and loan schemes, and protections for vulnerable households.
Read the one-year review statement
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