The Energy Bill was published. The Bill provided for the introduction from 2012 of the 'Green Deal'.
Source: Energy Bill [HL], Department for Energy and Climate Change/TSO | The Green Deal: A summary of the government's proposals, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | DECC press release | DECC report | CBI press release | Consumer Focus press release | EST press release | Friends of the Earth press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Notes: The 'Green Deal' is a programme designed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Under the scheme, householders would be able to get energy efficiency improvements carried out with capital provided by businesses, who would get their money back through energy bills.
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined recent developments in European Union energy policy.
Source: Donna Gore and Louise Smith, EU Energy Policy 2010 and After, Standard Note SN/SC/5587, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
The government began consultation on whether eligibility for Warm Front assistance should be revised in order to 'better focus support on those in fuel poverty or vulnerable to fuel poverty'.
Source: Consultation on Amending Reference to the Warm Front Scheme Eligibility Criteria, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Consultation document | Impact assessment | Equality impact assessment | Hansard | Age UK press release | Telegraph report
Notes: The Warm Front scheme provides financial assistance to vulnerable private households to support improvements in energy efficiency.
Date: 2010-Dec
The government began consultation on proposals for a 'warm home discount' under which energy companies would be required by law to give a discount on energy bills to more of their most vulnerable customers.
Source: Consultation on the Warm Home Discount, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Consultation document | Hansard | DECC press release | Consumer Focus press release
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined how fuel poverty was measured, trends in fuel poverty across the United Kingdom, more detailed data on patterns and extent in England, and measures taken to reduce it.
Source: Paul Bolton, Fuel Poverty Statistics, Standard Note SN/SG/5115, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
A report set out a series of recommendations to the government designed to ensure the success of the 'Green Deal'.
Source: Key Policies for Accelerating Low Carbon Retrofit in the Existing Domestic Building Stock, Existing Homes Alliance
Links: Report | Summary | CIH press release
Notes: The 'Green Deal' is a programme designed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Under the scheme, householders would be able to get energy efficiency improvements carried out with capital provided by businesses, who would get their money back through energy bills.
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined the range of schemes that had been developed in order to make homes and businesses more energy efficient, and to cut the cost and use of energy in homes.
Source: Louise Smith, Energy Efficiency Schemes, Standard Note SN/SC/5614, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Dec
A think-tank report said that the government's 'Green Deal' programme risked failing to reach the households most in need of more energy-efficient homes. For many of the 1.4 million social homes classified as 'hard to treat', the efficiency measures would cost more than would be saved in reduced energy bills.
Source: Luke Hildyard, Paint the Town Green: Meeting the energy efficiency challenge at community level, New Local Government Network
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs expressed concern that the legally binding target to deliver 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 might be unrealistic. The government needed a greater sense of urgency and purpose to meet the 2020 target and secure the new technology innovation to help meet the 2050 target.
Source: Funding the Development of Renewable Energy Technologies, Seventh Report (Session 2010-11), HC 538, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Telegraph report | Public Finance report
Date: 2010-Nov
A briefing paper examined the government's proposed 'Green Deal', designed to encourage home energy efficiency improvements paid for by savings from energy bills.
Source: Louise Smith, The Green Deal, Standard Note SN/SC/5763, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2010-Nov
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on fuel poverty. It said that it was 'still working through' many of the policy issues that had an impact on fuel poverty, and that it was 'open to ideas from all sources' as to how it could make progress with tackling the problem.
Source: Fuel Poverty: Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report of Session 2009-10, Second Special Report (Session 2010-11), HC 541, House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee/TSO
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2010-Oct
The coalition government published its response to a consultation (begun by the previous Labour government) on revised draft national policy statements on energy. It said that over one-half of new energy-generating capacity to be built by 2025 would come from renewable sources. But it confirmed eight sites as potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations, and said that a tidal energy project in the Severn estuary would not proceed.
Source: The Government Response to the Consultation on the Draft National Policy Statements for Energy Infrastructure, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Response to consultation | Hansard | DECC press release | CBI press release | Friends of the Earth press release | Green Party press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
The energy industry regulator said that securing sustainable energy supplies for consumers would require more than £200 billion to be spent over the following 10 years. A new performance-based model ('RIIO') was being introduced to set price controls to ensure consumers pay a fair price for this vital investment.
Source: RIIO: A new way to regulate energy networks, Office of Gas and Electricity Markets
Links: Factsheet | Ofgem press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Oct
A think-tank report said that renewable energy projects had the potential to revitalize neighbourhoods. Community buildings such as village halls, churches, and pubs could raise millions of pounds by installing microgeneration technologies – boosting their finances and survival chances.
Source: Reg Platt, Green Streets: Exploring the potential of community energy projects – Interim report, Institute for Public Policy Research
Links: Report | IPPR press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A study (for an official advisory body) examined the depth and impact of rural fuel poverty in England. Fuel-poor rural households were more likely to suffer from cold-related illnesses such as asthma and respiratory disease than non-fuel-poor rural households. Most of these households had to ration their fuel in winter, which could aggravate their poor health further. Not being able to afford to heat their homes and getting into fuel debt also showed up as significant issues.
Source: Rural Services Network, Understanding the Real Depth and Impact of Fuel Poverty in Rural England, Commission for Rural Communities/Countryside Agency
Links: Report | RSN Online report
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report said that the total cost of 'green' levies on energy bills would be equivalent to 4 pence on the existing basic rate of income tax in 2020, or 2 per cent of total forecast tax revenues.
Source: Simon Less, Green Bills: An analysis of the projected policy levy in energy bills, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release
Date: 2010-Aug
The Welsh Assembly Government published a new fuel poverty strategy, designed to reduce the impact of fuel poverty on householders, create green jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the domestic sector.
Source: Fuel Poverty Strategy 2010, Welsh Assembly Government
Links: Strategy | WAG press release | NEA press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new coalition government published its first annual energy statement. It put forward a series of measures, including a 'Green New Deal' to make homes more energy-efficient. It said that domestic energy bills should rise by only £13 per year by 2020 as a result of measures to cut carbon emissions.
Source: Annual Energy Statement, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Report | Hansard | DECC press release | CBI press release | Consumer Focus press release | EST press release | Friends of the Earth press release | IOD press release | NEA press release | Ofgem press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jul
A report said that the United Kingdom risked missing its European Union commitment to produce 15 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 without stronger government action and a greater focus on community-scale generation.
Source: Jim Watson, Ivan Scrase and Lee Stapleton, Transforming the UK's Energy System: Policies for the 2020 renewables target and beyond, Friends of the Earth
Links: Report | FOE press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report said that transforming the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland into a Green Investment Bank would create 50,000 new green jobs each year in the environmental goods and services sector, increase energy efficiency, and reduce the United Kingdom's carbon emissions.
Source: James Leaton, A Bank for the Future? Maximising public investment in a low- carbon economy, World Development Movement
Links: Report | WDM press release | New Start report
Date: 2010-Jul
A think-tank report said that the additional costs of energy arising from 'green' energy policies were set to increase significantly. They would mean significantly higher bills for energy consumers, and risked damaging manufacturing industry.
Source: Ruth Lea and Jeremy Nicholson, British Energy Policy and the Threat to Manufacturing Industry, Civitas
Links: Civitas press release
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced (in the Queen's Speech) plans for an Energy Security and Green Economy Bill, designed to deliver a national programme of energy efficiency measures to homes and businesses.
Source: Queen's Speech, 25 May 2010
Links: Text of Speech | Friends of the Earth press release | NHF press release | RICS press release | UKGBC press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-May
A think-tank report said that the increased costs of energy arising from the government's 'green' energy policies were set to increase significantly, and posed a threat to the competitiveness of manufacturing industry.
Source: Ruth Lea and Jeremy Nicholson, British Energy Policy and the Threat to Manufacturing Industry, Civitas
Links: Report | Civitas press release
Date: 2010-Apr
The Energy Act 2010 was given Royal assent. The Act established a mandatory social price support scheme to help more of the most vulnerable households with their energy bills, and strengthened the powers of the regulator (Ofgem) to refer market abuse to the Competition Commission. The Act also introduced a levy on electricity suppliers to fund four demonstration carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal power plants.
Source: Energy Act 2010, Department for Energy and Climate Change/TSO
Links: Text of Act | Explanatory notes | DECC press release | Consumer Association press release | News report
Date: 2010-Apr
A report by a committee of MPs raised a number of concerns about draft national policy statements on energy, including concern that decisions could give rise to an energy infrastructure that risked breaching the United Kingdom's carbon budgets.
Source: The Proposals for National Policy Statements on Energy, Third Report (Session 2009-10), HC 231, House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee/TSO
Links: Report | Friends of the Earth press release | CPRE press release | TCPA press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The opposition Conservative Party published its plans for reforming energy policy. 'Radical' proposals included promoting nuclear and renewable power, and improving energy efficiency.
Source: Rebuilding Security: Conservative energy policy for an uncertain world, Conservative Party
Links: Policy statement | Conservative Party press release | Friends of the Earth press release | CBI press release | UKGBC press release | NEA press release | REA press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
The government published a strategy aimed at cutting carbon emissions from homes by 29 per cent by 2020. It included a scheme to help people pay for improvements to their homes to make them more energy efficient, under which loans would remain attached to the house where insulation, solar panels, or other green technology was installed.
Source: Warm Homes, Greener Homes: A strategy for household energy management, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Links: Strategy | Hansard | DECC press release | TSA press release | NEA press release | UKGBC press release | NHF press release | CBI press release | NLA press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report examined the implications for Wales of future energy shortages. Wales was worse-placed than any other part of the UK to absorb higher travel costs and/or climate taxation, especially those that affected private car use. The Welsh Assembly Government's aspiration to eliminate fuel poverty by 2018 was probably unattainable in a regime of increasing energy prices.
Source: Calvin Jones, Wales in the Energy Crunch, Welsh Economy Research Unit/Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Feb
The energy industry regulator said that the unprecedented combination of a global financial crisis, tough environmental targets, increasing gas import dependency, and the closure of ageing power stations had combined to cast reasonable doubt over whether the existing energy arrangements would deliver secure and sustainable energy supplies. Prompt action was needed to reduce risk to energy supplies, help lower costs to consumers, and help progress towards climate change targets.
Source: Project Discovery: Options for delivering secure and sustainable energy supplies, Office of Gas and Electricity Markets
Links: Report | Ofgem press release | DECC press release | Consumer Focus press release | Friends of the Earth press release | CBI press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Feb
The Energy Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to establish a mandatory social price support scheme to help more of the most vulnerable households with their energy bills, and strengthen the powers of the regulator (Ofgem) to refer market abuse to the Competition Commission. The Bill would also introduce a levy on electricity suppliers to fund four demonstration carbon capture and storage (CCS) coal power plants.
Source: Energy Bill, Department for Energy and Climate Change/TSO | Debate 24 February 2010, columns 329-413, House of Commons Hansard/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2010-Feb