Green subsidies to ‘double energy bills by 2030’

Green charges and taxes will cause the average family energy bill to double by 2030, according to the TaxPayers' Alliance.

The campaign group claimed the average energy bill will increase from £1,342 (December 2012 prices) to nearly £1,900 by 2020, and £2,920 in 2030, due to growing green charges.

Currently, these represent 11 per cent of a typical gas bill, and 16 per cent of an average family electricity bill – or £191 on the overall energy bill.

Liberum Capital estimated £160.6 billion in capital expenditure will be required in the energy sector by 2020, pushing up bills by 29 per cent.

An additional £215.4 billion has been predicted to be needed between 2021 and 2030, inflating energy bills up even further.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Families and businesses are struggling with their electricity and gas bills.

“Politicians should be cutting energy taxes to ease that burden. Instead they are adding to them on an enormous scale to pay for fat subsidies that support expensive energy sources like wind turbines and solar panels.”

However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said that it is global gas prices, not green subsidies, which have been pushing up energy bills.

In a statement, Decc added: “Our household energy efficiency policies are on average more than offsetting the costs of clean energy investment.

“By 2020 the average household bill will be £166 lower than it would be if we were doing nothing.”