Voters back social energy tariff but don’t want to pay

More than half of UK voters back the next government to introduce a social energy tariff for the most vulnerable consumers, but significantly less are willing to pay for it.

An Opinium poll of more than 2,000 UK adults, conducted on behalf of the Warm This Winter campaign, found that 57% of the public back a social tariff.

While 32% were neutral or did not have an opinion, just 11% opposed the proposals.

However, when quizzed on how the policy should be paid for, just 4% believed contributions via energy bills should cover the costs while 8% believed in paying solely for the policy through general taxation.

Meanwhile a quarter of respondents believed that it should be fully funded through the energy industry (producers, networks and suppliers), while a similar number backed a mix of government funding and energy industry contributions.

Support for a social tariff was strongest among 2019 Labour voters (68%), compared to 60% of Lib Dems and 54% of those who voted Conservative. The policy is most popular in Scotland (61%), while more than half (51%) in London back the proposals.

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “Protecting vulnerable consumers from energy prices that remain way above 2021 levels is a popular and easy to implement policy that the next government must prioritise.

“The public would support this being paid for by the whole energy industry. Producers, transmission firms, network operators, market traders, suppliers and their supply chains could all chip in through their profits to make this happen.”

Warm This Winter spokesperson Fiona Waters added: “Energy bills will go up again in October and years of staggering prices have taken their toll.

“We now know the true cost of the crisis which will be with us for the foreseeable future. Customers are already £2,500 out of pocket because of Britain’s broken energy system, people are turning to loan sharks to pay their energy bills, millions of people are living in energy debt, in cold damp homes and many are experiencing a mental health crisis driven by high bills.

“This is why we need the next government to act quickly after the election to end energy debt, protect households from the volatile global energy market, bring down bills for good, improve housing standards and make Britain a clean energy superpower.”

A report published last September by the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee urged the government and industry to consider implementing a form of social tariff and other measures to protect vulnerable households from being cut off from their energy supplies.