Labour has pledged to cut energy bills by £300 per household from 2030, by investing in more clean renewable energy.
Fossil fuels made up 33 per cent of the UK’s total electricity supplies last year but Labour’s manifesto promised to “work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030”. Labour says its plan will lower bills because “renewables are far cheaper than gas” and has said the Office of Budget Responsibility has warned that if the UK remains dependent on gas, families and taxpayers could see a repeat of the recent crisis.
“Getting to a clean power system fast and with appropriate technologies is an investment, not simply a cost. He said: “With prices set to go up again in October, there will be a need to insulate from more gas price volatility. This means using less gas and more British renewables along with insulating homes so they leak less heat.”
The number comes from a report by Ember, an energy think tank. The report estimated that an average household electricity bill would be around £300 lower in 2030 than in July-October 2023 if the UK met its decarbonisation commitments, which are different to Labour’s plans. Labour has referred to a drop of up to £300 for energy bills, which include both electricity and gas, but the figures from this report only refer to electricity bills.
Ofgem, the energy regulator, said in May that energy bills are not expected to fall substantially over the decade partly because of the costs of expanding the electricity network to support more renewable sources.: “If we look at the forecasts for wholesale prices and then build on top of that the costs of the network going forward, I think we see something in our view that is relatively flat in the medium term.