Energy bills must state cost of green subsidies, say peers

ENERGY companies should tell customers how much of their bill is being spent on green subsidies, a cross-party parliamentary committee has said.

The Lords select committee on economic affairs said that there should be far greater transparency for house- holds about energy bills. It pointed out that the average domestic electricity bill is 58 per cent higher in 2016 than it was in 2003.

The peers highlighted the fact that the Government’s analysis suggests that 25 per cent of the cost of energy bills will be due to climate change policies by 2020. They said: “This is not transparent, however, as the cost is incorporated into electricity bills, making it difficult to scrutinise them with any certainty. The Government should provide estimates for the cost to consumers of climate change policies as part of its quarterly energy prices publication and require providers to include a summary of this information on energy bills.”

The peers added: “In most other European countries, these subsidies are levied on bills as explicit taxes.” They also said consumers may be paying an “unnecessarily high cost” to hit European Union carbon targets when “when future technological advances may bring the cost of renewable generation down substantially, as demonstrated by dramatic recent falls in the cost of solar and offshore wind”.

The EU Renewable Energy Directive requires the UK to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 – up from three per cent when the directive was adopted in 2009.

The news came as British Gas’s parent company Centrica unveiled profits of £1.5 billion despite losing 400,000 customers last year. Business: Page 5