{"id":10108,"date":"2026-04-09T09:40:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/10108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:40:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:40:37","slug":"give-every-uk-household-enough-cheap-energy-for-essential-uses-think-tank-urges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/10108\/","title":{"rendered":"Give every UK household enough cheap energy for essential uses, think tank urges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every UK household should be given enough energy<\/a> to provide hot water, heat two rooms, and run key appliances at rates subsidised by the government, a major think tank has urged.<\/p>\n

The New Economics Foundation <\/a>(NEF) <\/a>claims funding this \u2018essential energy<\/a>\u2019 would cost around \u00a34.5bn \u2013 roughly the same amount expected to be raised from tax revenues from the North Sea, where profits<\/a> of energy giants are set to soar because of the high price of oil as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.<\/a><\/p>\n

Oil prices dropped on Wednesday after President Trump announced a ceasefire had been agreed with Iran<\/a>, but uncertainty about whether the fragile agreement will hold has seen the price of Brent crude rise by 2 per cent on Thursday, to $96.53 a barrel.<\/p>\n

It remains significantly higher than at the start of the war, and concerns have been raised about the impact it could have on the cost of living for UK households.<\/p>\n

\"Benchmark Benchmark Brent crude prices jumped about 6% to $107.84 per barrel on Thursday (Reuters) <\/p>\n

The NEF claims its proposal could save all households \u00a3163, cutting the energy bills of the poorest families by 17 per cent.<\/p>\n

Richer households should be encouraged to reduce their energy use by investing in insulation measures, it adds.<\/p>\n

Dr Alex Chapman, senior economist at the NEF said: \u201cWe\u2019ve barely emerged from one inflation crisis and now we\u2019re being plunged into another. Despite this week\u2019s ceasefire agreement, the aftershocks of this illegal war will hit us hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine was a lesson in why we need to change how our energy system and energy bills work \u2013 but we didn\u2019t listen. Once again, fossil fuel giants and electricity generators are about to rake in mammoth profits<\/a> while our energy bills go through the roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not make the same mistake again \u2013 this government must protect households\u2019 ability to meet their essential energy needs and our research suggests that they can do so by taxing those who profited the most from this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEF\u2019s proposal, called an \u201cessential energy guarantee\u201d, would see the government protecting a portion of energy allowing households to meet their essential daily energy needs. This essential energy would be frozen at the current price cap rate for April-June.<\/p>\n

Households consuming above this amount would pay market rates for any additional energy use. The research shows that higher-income households tend to use greater amounts of energy than lower-income households.<\/p>\n

Green Party leader Zack Polanski<\/a> said last month he would put aside \u00a38.4bn to fund energy bill subsidies if he won an election. He would pay for that by increasing capital gains tax, he said.<\/p>\n

Energy giants say the profits are a function of market conditions and that they need the money to invest in infrastructure and in the green alternatives the government prefers.<\/p>\n

This NEF proposal differs from the \u201cenergy price guarantee\u201d introduced in response to soaring energy prices in 2022, which capped the per-unit cost of energy for all households.<\/p>\n

The energy cap is expected to rise by about \u00a3388 in July, which could leave dual-fuel households with bills of nearly \u00a32,000 a year.<\/p>\n

The first UK energy price cap was introduced by Ofgem in 2019 as part of an attempt to stop energy companies<\/a> from reaping excessive profits from unsuspecting consumers.<\/p>\n

NEF is a left-leaning think tank funded by donations. It is not connected to any political party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every UK household should be given enough energy to provide hot water, heat two rooms, and run key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[234,4923,4924,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-10108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-energy","9":"tag-essential-energy","10":"tag-nef","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116374092092154799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}