Parliament recently passed legislation to introduce the energy price cap, which will protect up to 11 million households on default tariffs.
The Government’s Domestic Gas & Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act will ensure loyal customers are protected from poor value tariffs.
Hard-working families, older people and those on low incomes have been subject to rip-off default energy tariffs and these new measures will further bring down the £1.4 billion per year that consumers have been overpaying.
The cap on energy tariffs will be in place by the winter. Ofgem will set a cap on the Standard Variable Tariffs to tackle the amount consumers have been overpaying.
Switching supplier will remain the best way to save money; recent figures show that in 2017 a record 5.5 million (or one in six) electricity customers switched provider. However, these measures will ensure that loyal customers who choose not to switch, or are unable to, will not be ripped off.
These moves are being implemented to ensure Crawley residents get to keep more of what they earn. With this in mind, the tax-free Personal Allowance and the National Living Wage both increased further in April.
Additional measures include the £6 billion home energy efficiency scheme being focused on upgrading more than one million low income and vulnerable households over the next few years.
The Energy Company Obligation scheme requires energy companies to supply heating and energy efficiency measures and is to be entirely focused on households in or at risk of fuel poverty, in addition to being expanded to include more companies.
Such initiatives are to ensure consumers are at the heart of the energy system and to see that suppliers deliver value and choice.
This work is part of a package of reforms to deliver the Government’s plans for clean, affordable and innovative energy, while tackling fuel poverty, as part of the modern Industrial Strategy.
More than £2.5 billion is being invested in supporting low carbon innovation until 2021, and support for renewables has seen investment of more than £52 billion in renewable energy since 2010.
Henry Smith MP