My Right Honourable friend the Minister of State for Energy and Climate (Graham Stuart) has today made the following statement:
On 29 July the government announced details of the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) which is now providing a £400 discount on electricity bills to households across Great Britain, delivered over six months. Monthly credits are being made from October to March. All customers should have received their October and November credits, and December credits are underway. On the same date we announced EBSS Alternative Funding would be developed to deliver the same level of support to households without a domestic electricity account. I will announce further details of eligibility for this before the Christmas recess.
There have been concerns expressed about the delivery of vouchers to some traditional prepayment meter customers. Suppliers have reported that all vouchers were dispatched in October and November. The redemption rate of vouchers is increasing. Following the Secretary of State’s letter to the CEOs of energy suppliers last week, I met them and pressed them further to do everything they can to support these customers, to provide prompt and accurate advice and to ensure that their customers know to look out for their vouchers and understand how to redeem them. Figures for the November delivery of EBSS will be published on 20 December.
Energy policy is devolved in Northern Ireland and it would normally be the responsibility of Northern Ireland Ministers to put this kind of support for households in place. In the absence of a functioning Executive, but in consultation with Northern Ireland Ministers, the UK Government committed in August to develop and deliver a scheme comparable to that being delivered in Great Britain. The Government continues to work intensively with electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland to ensure the support reaches their customers this winter.
Rolling out this support is not without challenges, from having needed legislation to enable intervention from Westminster as energy is ordinarily a devolved matter, to ensuring that the design is appropriate for the market. Whilst we have been acting rapidly to provide electricity suppliers in Northern Ireland with funding, suppliers did not have the systems necessary to distribute this cash readily in place. This has prolonged the process of getting the payments out to households. We continue to work tirelessly with suppliers to get this support to households at the very earliest opportunity. Although the start of the scheme has taken longer than I would have liked, households will receive the full amount of support this winter.
These schemes augment the cost-of-living package of assistance already announced, including the Energy Price Guarantee which is already reducing energy bills for households across the United Kingdom, and a broad range of existing support being provided to vulnerable households.
The Government continues to develop the £200 Alternative Fuel Payment, for households which use fuels such as heating oil, LPG and biomass to heat their homes, rather than gas. To aid the policy development, the Office of National Statistics has released preliminary estimates from the 2021 Census of England and Wales on the number of households by type of central heating at output area level and above for England and Wales. The dataset is available here:
I will provide further details to the House as soon as I am able.
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