Budget reaction from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:

“While there will be a sigh of relief that energy bills will not rise to the levels previously feared, there are still millions of households left out in the cold from the Budget.

“People will still be paying £285 more for their energy in 2023/24 than they did this winter and millions of households will still be left in cold damp homes.

“Customers who pay for their energy via standard credit will still pay on average £202 more for their bills than those on direct debit or pre-payment meters.

“And across the country, we now predict combined household energy debt will total £2.7bn by the end of June.

“We need further action to provide energy debt relief to get households onto even keel and long term changes to Britain’s broken energy system. This includes tariff reform and rapid improvements to energy efficiency of housing to ensure we never again see an energy bills crisis.”