Mentions:
1: Kenny MacAskill (Alba - East Lothian) Costs will be higher this year than last, when support was given to reduce bills. - Speech Link
2: Amanda Solloway (Con - Derby North) The standing charge is used to recover the costs required to provide vital energy company services, including - Speech Link
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department has taken to support users of off-grid energy with energy costs.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer I gave my Hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn on 22 January 2024 to Question 10266.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what basis the School Teachers' Review Body estimated energy costs as £1,450 million; on what basis the updated estimate of £750 million was arrived at; what assessment she has made of the robustness of these estimates; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The School Teachers’ Review Body did not provide its own assessment of energy costs for schools. It considered the estimate of schools’ energy costs provided by the Department.
The Department’s assessment considered trends in national energy prices and the prices paid by schools, considering how these are likely to vary depending on when schools signed up to their energy contracts.
The Department initially estimated that energy costs in 2023/24 would increase by £1,450 million above the baseline energy costs from 2021/22, when energy costs were close to £700 million for all schools. This would represent a 200% increase. This estimate was underpinned by market data about forecast energy prices at that time, as well as contract types.
The Department continued to monitor forecast prices and updated its assessment in March this year, in light of lower price forecasts published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The Department continued to make assumptions about schools which would continue to pay above or below this market price, given contract variation. Lower forecasts of prices in 2023/24 led to a reduction in the forecast of the overall increase in energy costs, of an estimated £750 million increase in energy costs above 2021/22 levels, or a 125% increase. The updated forecast does not, therefore, suggest that schools’ energy costs (or the prices that they are paying) will fall in 2023/24, compared to 2022/23. Rather, the increase in energy costs that schools will face in 2023/24, compared to their costs in 2021/22, is now forecast to have moderated.
The Department will continue to refine our assumptions on energy costs for schools for future years.
Written Evidence Feb. 08 2024
Inquiry: Energy bills for domestic customersFound: ENB0040 - Energy bills for domestic customers Cadent Written Evidence
Feb. 15 2024
Source Page: Fuel poverty supplementary tables 2024 (2022 data)Found: (£)3Median after housing costs (AHC), equivalised income (£)Median Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating
Feb. 15 2024
Source Page: Fuel poverty supplementary tables 2024 (2023 data)Found: Fuel Costs (£)3Median after housing costs (AHC), equivalised income (£)Median Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency
Written Evidence Feb. 28 2024
Inquiry: Energy bills for domestic customersFound: ENB0047 - Energy bills for domestic customers E.ON Written Evidence
Apr. 11 2024
Source Page: Coal Authority financial transactions: March 2024Found: Power Costs DEFRA Metal Mine Programme Edf Energy 175046 274.24 Department for Business, Energy and
Feb. 15 2024
Source Page: Fuel poverty supplementary tables 2024 (2022 data)Found: (£)3 Median after housing costs (AHC), equivalised income (£) Median Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency
Written Evidence Feb. 08 2024
Inquiry: Energy bills for domestic customersFound: ENB0041 - Energy bills for domestic customers Fuel Poverty Action Written Evidence