Energy deal welcome, but Government needs to prove sums add up

Gordon Brown's expected announcement of a £1 billion energy plan to help consumers become more energy efficient and therefore cut soaring bills is welcome, but the Government will need to prove its sums add up before consumers will see it as a credible solution, warns uSwitch.com. It is calling on the Government to provide hard facts and figures to show how much money the proposed energy efficiency measures will shave off the average household bill, how this saving compares with the average £380 or 42% increase households have seen in energy bills this year alone and how it will help combat future price rises with a further 14% increase expected early next year.

However, the biggest priority, says uSwitch.com, is for the Government to reveal exactly how many households will be taken out of fuel poverty by its new measures after a year of price hikes has seen fuel poverty hit 5.4 million with 21% of households now impacted. The net has also spread wider - while almost a third (30%) of pensioner households are in fuel poverty, so are 20% of families with one income and 17% of single person working households. Both groups are vulnerable because punishing price hikes are being met by one person's income alone.

Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, says: "The Government has woken up to the fact that the country faces serious concerns over the ongoing affordability of household energy. It is adopting the right approach in trying to help consumers pay the lowest possible price for their energy and use less of it, but we need to understand whether this is the whole solution or only part of it. I suspect the latter as these measures will take some time to roll-out and even longer to start bearing fruit - they certainly won't be helping people this winter.

"But the yardstick to use when judging the effectiveness of these measures is very simple - price rises have added £380 onto the average household bill so far this year. How much will be shaved off again through energy efficiency and by when? 5.4 million households are now struggling with fuel poverty - how many will be helped back out of the net again and by when? Consumers will want to see these sums add up if the Government's solution is to have any credibility."