Renewable Energy Forum (REF) is claiming that the public has been 'seriously misled' by the Government about the likely impact of climate policies on energy bills, following a new assessment of the Department of Energy & Climate Change's (DECC) proposed energy efficiency measures.
Analysing DECC's own figures, REF has found that the Government expects just 35% of UK households to have lower energy bills as a result of the net impact of its energy and climate change policies, while 65% will be worse off.

Commissioned by Calor Gas, the study Shortfall, Rebound, Backfire: Can we rely on energy efficiency to offset climate policy costs? is published by Renewable Energy Forum today (21 May) and reveals that the UK's energy and climate policies will be responsible for major increases in the retail price of gas and electricity in 2020. Percentage increases for electricity will range from +27% for domestic households to +34% for medium-sized businesses and for gas +7% and +11% respectively.

Renewable Energy Forum analysed the DECC's 2011 Annual Energy Statement in which the Government claimed that energy-efficiency measures will protect domestic households by cutting consumption and therefore preventing policy-driven price increases from being translated into increased bills.

Former Secretary of State at the DECC, Chris Huhne, addressed Parliament on 23 November and said: 'By 2020, we expect household bills to be 7% lower than they would otherwise be without our policies. Moreover, bills will be lower during this Parliament. Britain's homes will be cheaper to heat and to light than if we did nothing, in this Parliament and in the longer term.' (Hansard, 23 November 2011).

However, work by Renewable Energy Forum says that Mr Huhne's claim was misleading. By 'decoding' one of DECC's own charts, the REF study shows that the Government expects that only 35% of UK households will have lower bills as a result of the net impact of the Government's energy and climate change policies and 17 million households will be worse off.

One of the principal authors of REF's study, Dr John Constable, said: 'Mr Huhne should have said that even with very optimistic assumptions about high performance of energy-efficiency policies, his department calculates that bills would still rise for 65% of households. Instead, he chose to say that the 'average' household would be better off. That was misleading and Mr Davey, his successor at DECC, should correct the record.'

REF believes that DECC's assumption of lower energy bills is too dependent on extremely optimistic assumptions about the impact of the European Union's 'Products Policies', to which the UK is committed, and which are intended to ensure improved efficiency of domestic appliances, as well as the impact of Smart Meters and the wholesale prices of renewable energy.

For more information visit www.ref.org.uk