Bitesize Blogs – short musing from NEC directors and associates!
Are ‘cheap’ prices hampering Net Zero?
Following a discussion about how best to encourage homeowners to improve their housing stock to aid the drive towards Net Zero, is cheap pricing hampering that message as the relative savings achievable (so the speed of a return on any investment) are potentially not reflective of the actual benefit.
Something for BEIS and Ofgem to consider perhaps when looking at a couple of industry issues: loss leading tariffs and moving green levies to central taxation.
- Aside from the risks that loss leading tariffs already create in a market with small margins and tight cashflow, this could be another argument against loss-leaders.
- Moving all the green levies and other taxes out of energy bills and into general taxation would greatly reduce the values of bills and lift thousands out of fuel poverty (although their purses may well be hit elsewhere instead). However, if bills were halved what impetus would a homeowner have to install cavity wall insulation, or turn down the thermostat?
If you’ve got any thoughts on this or want to talk further, please use the contact form on the right.
Rob
