Opinion-in-brief: Gas prices will exacerbate fuel poverty if we don’t act
Gas prices will perpetuate the cost of living crisis in 2022, with hundreds of thousands of new households at risk of fuel poverty. On top of that, gas boilers still account for one in seven tonnes of carbon the UK emits each year. We need to act.
The sooner we adopt low-carbon home heating and construct more efficient homes, the more resilient we will be in the face of future energy price volatility.
The government is pondering over the Future Homes and Buildings Standard aiming to ensure new homes will not be built with fossil fuel heating. Currently, the Standard is not taking effect until 2025: its implementation should be brought forward.
Additionally, the Warm Homes Discount should be annually price indexed, uprating the value of the rebate offered to low-income households. These actions will be fundamental in tackling the cost of living crisis.