The UK government needs to take “urgent action” to curb household energy consumption to keep the lights on at affordable prices while reducing reliance on fossil fuels, members of the ruling Conservative Party said.
(Bloomberg) — The UK government needs to take “urgent action” to curb household energy consumption to keep the lights on at affordable prices while reducing reliance on fossil fuels, members of the ruling Conservative Party said.
The challenges are so severe that energy should be split out from the department of business, energy and industrial strategy, according to a panel that scrutinizes policies relating to business and energy.
“Urgent government action is needed, both on promoting domestic energy generation and on facilitating energy demand reduction,” said Andrea Leadsom, chair of the 1922 BEIS Backbench Committee and former business secretary. “To do this requires significant leadership focus on the entire energy brief.”
The loss of natural gas flows from Russia has put pressure European energy systems. While UK supplies have been relatively sheltered, the nation is exposed to the same price risks as the rest of the region. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for the nation to focus on homegrown sources of energy.
To “unblock” the development of renewables, the committee recommends building projects and power lines alongside motorways. It also suggests introducing local referendums for onshore wind and solar and shale projects, with compensation for local residents most affected.
Other recommendations include:
- Enabling the UK Infrastructure Bank to offer medium-term loans to households to pay for green measures.
- Replacing the Energy Price Guarantee with a lower tariff for a given number of units of energy for each household.
–With assistance from Alex Morales.
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