Context
Consumers are frustrated with rising standing charges for electricity bills, which may affect their willingness to switch to clean technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Question
What assessment has the Department made of the potential implications for its policies of recent trends in levels of standing charges for electricity bills? Has the Department assessed whether the rising standing charges are discouraging residents in our constituencies from switching to heat pumps and electric vehicles because they are concerned about the fixed costs that will come with them?
Answer from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Miatta Fahnbulleh)
We know that consumers are frustrated by standing charges, which is why we are committed to lowering them. Ofgem has been consulting on introducing a zero standing charge tariff that would shift the costs onto unit rates. The consultation has now closed, and we will be working with Ofgem to take this forward. There are fixed costs within standing charges relating to, for instance, the cost of maintaining and upgrading networks, which we have to cover, but we recognise the imbalance between the price that people are paying for electricity and the price they are paying for gas. We are committed to dealing with that imbalance because we think it right that consumers can transition to clean heat.
Not addressed: The exact assessment on whether rising standing charges discourage residents from switching to heat pumps and electric vehicles was not provided.
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