Recommendation 23

HM Government · verbatim extract Not Addressed

The government agrees with this recommendation We recognise that some energy system costs fall disproportionately on electricity bills which has resulted in distortions between relative gas and electricity costs. We therefore took action at the Budget to remove some of these costs by cancelling the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme. In addition, to make bills fairer, we shifted costs onto public spending with the government funding 75% of the domestic cost of the legacy Renewables Obligation for three years. On the balance of levies between electricity and gas, we will continue to explore ways to lower energy bills for consumers and reduce barriers for consumers to adopt clean technologies. However, any further changes made to electricity bills including the distribution of levies relative to gas, will only be done in a way which is fair to all consumers. On 21st January, the government published a partial response to the EPC reform consultation, alongside a new consultation that asks questions about what an EPC C should look like on new EPCs. We also published the government response to the Private Rented Sector Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, setting out the new EPC standard for privately rented homes from October 2030. As set out in the Warm Homes Plan, we will consult in due course on our assessment of whether hydrogen should have a role in heating our homes in the future. As hydrogen is not yet a proven technology for home heating, a role would come later and likely be limited.