Our friends at NEA (National Energy Action) have scoured the manifesto pledges of the main political Parties. Here, we’re sharing the energy pledges from the Top 3 English Parties:
- Maintain the energy price cap
- Review and reform standing charges
- Increase efficiency in local markets for electricity
- Give households the choice of smart energy tariffs
- Invest £6 billion in energy efficiency over the next three years to make around a million homes warmer
- Fund an energy efficiency voucher scheme, open to every household in England, to support the installation of energy efficiency measures and solar panels, helping families lower their bills
- Deliver a net zero electricity system by 2030
- Invest an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament, doubling the existing planned government investment, to upgrade five million homes
- Establish the Warm House Plan to offer grants and low-interest loans to support investment in insulation and other improvements such as solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating to cut bills
- Ensure homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030
- Introduce a social tariff
- Bring in new private rented sector standards of EPC C by 2028
- Launch an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme targeted at low income households
- Introduce a new subsidised Energy-Saving Home scheme with pilots to work out the most efficient combinations of support
- A one-off windfall tax
- Decouple electricity prices from the wholesale gas price
- Eliminate regional differences in domestic energy bills
What will happen after the election?
It’s currently unclear what the parliamentary timetable will be. NEA is expecting the parliamentary calendar will be rewritten to change the recess dates but it’s hard to predict when this will be.
There will be a King’s speech quite soon after the election to set out the legislative agenda. In the 2019 election the Queen’s speech happened a week later.
Party conferences in September will be crucial for setting the political agenda.