Householders pay around £100 on low carbon and efficiency measures – CCC

Committee on Climate Change estimates the resulting savings as equivalent to removing 10mn cars from the road

Government policies to support low carbon electricity and energy efficiency schemes made up £100 of annual domestic energy bills in 2013, says the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in its third assessment of the impact of carbon budgets on bills. As a result, emission reductions have been achieved equivalent to the annual emissions of 10mn cars. 

The report: Energy prices and bills – impacts of meeting carbon budgets, finds that, from a typical energy bill costing £1,140 in 2013, householders paid around £55 per year to support energy efficiency schemes and £45 per year to support low carbon electricity.

The £55 contributed towards energy efficiency schemes helped to pay for 200,000 new boilers and heating controls to be installed in low-income homes and/or fuel poor families. The money also supported the insulation of almost 200,000 homes (cavity walls, solid walls and lofts). Some 40% of these insulation measures benefitted low income and/or fuel poor families, says the CCC.

However, the report also finds that the primary causes of energy bill increases since 2004 have been an increase in the international price of gas and investment in electricity/gas networks. Whilst low carbon policies and support for energy efficiency improvement have had an impact, this remains small by comparison (eg each accounting for around 10% of the increase in household bills from 2004–13), adds the CCC.