Politics Home | Private Sector Offered To Lend Government Experts To Help Design Energy Bill Support

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PoliticsHome understands that departments were in talks with the energy sector about data analysts being seconded to the civil service to help design a scheme in response to the Iran war, but decided against it. 

The revelation comes amid questions over whether the government has the data it needs to build a scheme that ensures financial support reaches households who need it most amid the global energy crisis triggered by the Middle East conflict, without spending huge amounts of public money. 

Ministers have said that any new support for household energy bills will be targeted and not a repeat of the universal scheme rolled out by the then-Conservative government in 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put extreme pressure on global energy supplies.

Earlier this month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC: “I want to learn the lessons of the past because when Russia invaded Ukraine, the richest, the best-off third of households got more than a third of the support. That makes no sense at all.” 

Speaking to MPs last month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “acutely aware” of how much that policy cost the taxpayer and “acutely aware of the state of the public finances”. The 2022 energy bill package is estimated to have cost the Treasury around £50bn.

The government has already announced support for households reliant on heating oil, and has said it will set out a wider package of help for energy bills in the months ahead.

The Ofgem price cap, which determines the maximum amount that suppliers can charge people for household energy, is expected to rise significantly in July as a result of the pressure put on global supplies of gas and oil by the ongoing war in Iran. Consultancy Cornwall Insight currently forecasts that it will rise 19 per cent from £1,641 to £⁠1,929.

PoliticsHome understands that in recent weeks, parts of the energy industry have offered to assist officials by providing fully-funded staff on secondment to help develop targeted energy bill support. However, despite initially being open to the proposal, the government turned it down, concluding that the additional support is unnecessary.

As the government comes under pressure to set out details about how further support will work, there is growing doubt about whether the mechanism it needs to effectively deliver targeted support currently exists in Whitehall.

Adam Bell, a former government energy special adviser and director of policy at Stonehaven Consultancy, told PoliticsHome it was “just obscene” that a mechanism to target energy bill support had not already been created following the 2022 energy crisis. 

“The crisis was four years ago. We have failed to act in time for the next crisis, which is just obscene,” said Bell. “It’s not like they weren’t told over and over again.”

He also said it was “depressing” that the offer of staff had been rejected, stating that a lot of data work to target energy bill support “has already been done” by the private sector, while the government remains “slow and unable” to do the same. 

Simon Francis, co-ordinator at the End Fuel Poverty coalition, said it was “disappointing” that the government had rejected the offer of external support as it “clearly” does need it.

“It’s something certainly ministers have realised, if they hadn’t already realised it in the last couple of months, that there needs to be a lot more work done at speed to get those systems in place,” he told PoliticsHome.

He said that basing support on means-tested benefits is an inadequate approach, as it will result in other people who need protection from rising energy bills being excluded.

“Energy firms themselves understand and know who is struggling. They know their customer base, they know who’s on priority service registers,” Francis said, adding that the government should be looking to “break down those blocks between sharing of information”. 

A government spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “We are working at pace to explore options to deliver targeted energy bill support and are in regular contact with the energy sector.

“Internal government resource was found to begin this work quickly, and we will continue to work with both public sector bodies and industry to draw on the right expertise as needed.”