Energy ‘far’ bigger worry for public than other bills

Concerns about paying energy costs dwarf worries about other types of bills amongst the public, according to a new government survey.

The spring edition of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) energy and climate public attitudes tracker survey, published on Thursday (16 June), found 58% of those polled were most concerned about energy bills.

This “far outweighed” the level of concern about other bills, it said.

The next biggest source of bill worries was transport, cited by 12%, followed by food and other household essentials (8%).

Around one in ten (11%) were equally worried about all three types of bills, while eight per cent said they were not concerned.

Just over two thirds (64%) of those surveyed were either very (29%) or fairly worried (35%) about paying for their electricity bills over the previous three months. Another 27% said they were not very or at all worried about energy bills.

The survey also showed public unwillingness to switch to low-carbon heating systems if they need to replace their heating.

More than half (56%) of people living in owner-occupier households, the largest proportion of the population by housing tenure, said they are unlikely to install a low-carbon heating system.

The main barriers to switching to a low carbon heating system included concerns about the cost of installation (45%), a preference to see how the technology develops in time (34%), or a perception it might not be possible to install in their home (31%).

Exactly half of people (50%) said they would only replace their heating system when their current one breaks down or starts to deteriorate, while 19% said they would consider replacing their heating system while it was working. A further 28% said it was not their decision to make.

Overall support for renewable energy had only slipped marginally from 87% to 86% since the winter tracker despite concerns by net zero sceptic politicians that support for low-carbon generation is exacerbating increases in power prices.

More people supported a solar panel farm being built in their local area (54%) than an onshore wind farm (43%).

In the short-term, far more people anticipated price rises (53%) than price decreases (11%) as a result of the shift towards renewable energy.  However, more people anticipated price decreases (45%) than rises (26%) in ten or more years’ time as a result of greater uptake of renewables.

A quarter of respondents reported switching suppliers in the last 12 months, with 12% saying they had chosen to and 11% saying they were forced to do so because their retailer ceased trading.