Move all energy policy costs onto gas and tap windfall profits to reduce UK energy bills, says ESNZ Committee

• Government must maintain unwavering focus on costs as central issue in energy transition 

Government should now move all remaining energy transition policy costs off the price of electricity and onto the price of gas on UK energy bills, the Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee says in a report today - a key step to making the transition away from fossil fuels economical for consumers. 

There will need to be special support for those gas customers least able to take advantage of the benefits the transition. Future policy costs must not be placed on billpayers. 

The Committee says:  

• Relying on consumers to bear all of the costs of the energy transition is potentially the biggest barrier to achieving the Clean Power 2030 target:  the energy system should be adapted so the whole sector contributes to the cost of necessary electricity infrastructure. 

• Allowances for consumer debt are still a growing part of bills under the energy price cap: the Government should identify where windfall profits are made in the energy system and use excess to reduce bills. 

• Consumers are in the dark about what exactly they are paying for on their energy bills, which makes decisions about the energy transition more difficult.  Ofgem should be able to require energy operators to produce clearly broken-down bills.  

• The networks achieved higher than expected profits in RIIO-2: It is time for the Government and Ofgem to match the ambition set out by the Committee in its first Cost of Energy report and secure a contribution from the networks towards reducing the consumer energy debt burden. 

• Government must speed up its work delinking the price of gas from the price of electricity and make better use of its tools to bring down wholesale costs 

Bill Esterson MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "The simple truth about the UK's energy transition is that it is about costs and security - not arbitrary targets, not culture wars and division, not political point scoring. 

"Our report today has bold, positive, workable solutions to help set the costs and get the support right. That's all households and businesses across the UK need to adopt the new technologies of the transition and secure the benefits of less-costly, home-grown electricity for us all."