Recommendation 45

We recommend that the Government urgently publishes its overdue Fairness and Affordability call for evidence, particularly in the context of rising energy prices. We recommend that the review includes a distributional analysis of the impact that recovering policy costs from electricity and gas bills has on vulnerable customers and considers moving legacy policy costs to general taxation. Any reapportioning of policy costs from electricity to gas bills must be accompanied by mitigating negative impacts on fuel poor and vulnerable consumers. The review should also include an assessment of the impact that standing charges have on vulnerable customers, and whether these charges are appropriate for customers using prepayment meters.