Trouble keeping warm

Last autumn's sharp gas and electricity price rises pushed an extra 400,000 English households into fuel poverty, according to the Energy Department, DECC.


It says that "price rises in the latter part of 2011 lead to an increase of around 0.4m households", taking the total to 3.9m.


Since then we've seen a modest cut in prices earlier this year, but British Gas has indicated that prices will rise significantly again before the coming winter.


So the fuel poverty total is likely to rise once more.


Fuel poverty is defined as households which spend more than 10 per cent of their income keeping warm.

Protect us from smart meter mis-selling

It is an accident waiting to happen: companies under investigation for questionable sales tactics, given the freedom to enter millions of homes.

The biggest programme of legal home visits gas and electricity companies can remember is getting underway.

28 million homes and 2 million small businesses will have new smart meters installed to measure energy use in greater detail, get rid of estimated bills and put the meter-reader out of a job.

Yet we've just heard that E.ON is being investigated by the energy watchdog, Ofgem, after complaints about its doorstep selling tactics.

Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern and npower are under scrutiny as well. EDF has had to pay customers millions of pounds after breaking marketing rules.

Hence today's statement from the energy department, DECC, saying:

"The Government will set out in suppliers’ licences that there can be no sales concluded during the installation visit and that the consumer must agree in advance to any face-to-face marketing activity."

There will be a special code of practice to govern the installation visits, which will be happening from now until 2019.

Let's hope it works.

You won't be charged for the smart meter at the time of installation, or the display they'll provide in the home to show how you are using energy.

But the whole process, apparently one of the biggest engineering installation programmes in Europe, will be paid for out of our bills.

You can refuse to have one, but you'll be paying for it anyway!

Here are some basic questions answered.

£280 on energy bills

The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has revealed that the cost of policies to deal with climate change will add £280 to household energy bills by 2020.

The policies, including support for renewable energy, will add 27% to the price of electricity.

However, he said that energy efficiency measures, such as home insulation, would cut bills by more than that. So the overall effect would be a £94 reduction in bills, a drop of 7%.

The figures ignore any increase in the underlying price of gas and electricity, which will add significantly more to the cost of heat and power.

The government is introducing a Green Deal next year, enabling households to pay for insulation out of the future savings they achieve from having it installed.

Energy companies will have to provide £1.3 billion a year to ensure everyone is able to benefit from the Green Deal, no matter their income or the type of house they live in.

Social tenants to miss out on £120 solar savings

A pioneering project to provide 22,000 tenants of social housing schemes with solar panels generating free electricity is in jeopardy.

Fears that the government would cut back subsidies for solar installations have prompted backers to withdraw their support.

The project had been planned by Empower Community, a social enterprise, with support from eight local authorities and housing associations, along with charities and a major pension fund.

Empower says families would have saved an average of £120 a year off their bills, by using free solar power during daylight hours.

The project was to take advantage of a subsidy arrangement, called a feed-in tariff, designed to encourage renewable energy generation. Householders are paid a generous price for any renewable power they manage to produce.

It was well known that a reduction in the rates on offer for solar electricity was likely to be implemented in April next year.

But there has been mounting speculation that ministers will announce a cut of as much as 75% and bring it in from January, after receiving a stampede of applications for the help.

"I was gobsmacked when I heard," says Alex Grayson, managing partner of Empower Community, "The policy is being cut off at the knees."

We all pay for the subsidies, through our electricity bills. They have been criticised for costing electricity users too much and for benefiting mainly richer households and big investment funds.

But Empower argues that its project would have redressed the balance, saving money for low-income families, many of them using pre-payment meters and paying the highest prices for power.

Installations were planned for Wales, Yorkshire, East Anglia and Lincolnshire, with the work starting in January and finishing in March.

Tens of thousands of installations planned by other organisations could be affected as well.

Each home would have had between 8 and 12 solar panels fitted on a south-facing roof, providing the occupants free electricity for 25 years.

In practice, the panels were expected to save between £100 and £250 from a typical electricity bill, depending on how much electricity families could take advantage of while the sun was shining.

Any leftover power would be sold on the National Grid, with the profits and the subsidy shared between the social landlord and financial backers.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change told the BBC that all the subsidised tariffs were being considered in a Comprehensive Review.

"We've made clear that tariffs will remain unchanged until April 2012 unless the review indicates the need for greater urgency," added a DECC spokesperson.

However, once rumours started circulating that the Department was planning to pull forward a cut in rates, Empower's financial backers put £175m of support on hold.

If the right financing was in place, it is thought that a million housing association and council homes could be suitable for solar panels.