#BringDownBills
Action scorecard
In Energy UK’s ‘How to cut bills’ report, we set out various policy recommendations for achieving significant bill savings over the next five years.
We’ll be tracking each development on this page. Hover over each milestone in the scorecard, click for more detail or explore the accessible version.
‘Bring Down Bills’ action scorecard
Last updated: 23 March 2026
Optimising the energy system to deliver savings
35%
Capitalising on the benefits of a rapidly evolving system
33%
Targeting public investment to guarantee significant bill reductions
31%
Below is an accessible version of the scorecard, with more detail to explore around each policy and overall progress.
Optimising the energy system to deliver savings
Overall progress: 35%
Maximise the benefits of the smart meter rollout by supporting customers to see rewards from demand shifting and allowing the passthrough of the benefits from the network level.
Smart meters are the key to an efficient future energy system, as well as enabling people to access the benefits of using energy more flexibly. The typical household with flexibility equipment, such as a battery, EV or heat pump, could save £115 per year.
Greater demand flexibility will generate savings for all customers. National energy system costs would be £4.6 billion lower in 2030 in a flexibility scenario due to lower wholesale electricity prices and less new energy infrastructure needing to be built.
Marked ‘in progress’ as DESNZ’s non-domestic post-2025 smart metering policy framework consultation has closed and is yet to be confirmed.
DESNZ also consulted last year on how to better integrate smart meter and low-carbon technology installations.
The Government has also committed to considering how policy ‘levers’ can be applied to other aspects of the energy, skills, planning and housing policy landscape to drive smart meter uptake. This includes the Future Homes and Building Standards, Energy Performance Certificates, and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards Regulations.
Implement Market-Wide Half Hourly Settlement to enable a modern, flexible retail electricity market.
Market-Wide Half Hourly Settlement (MHHS) will enable energy supply to operate more efficiently and encourage smarter tariffs, new services, and business models that can offer further customer benefits, including savings for using their energy more flexibly. This will also support industry to make better use of existing infrastructure, reducing the needs for future system costs.
Ofgem has estimated that MHHS will bring net benefits for consumers of between £1.6 billion and £4.5 billion over the period 2021-2045.
Marked ‘in progress’ as the MHHS Programme, which was established to deliver the various necessary projects, began the migration phase in October 2025. Suppliers are migrating customers to the new settlement process across an 18-month window. MHHS is on track to go live from May 2027.
Key elements of the retail market such as the price cap and bill support will also need to be optimised to deliver the potential benefits. This requires coordinated work from DESNZ and Ofgem.
Upgrade the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO’s) Electricity National Control Centre to improve system operation and reduce balancing costs.
Upgrading NESO’s control room and IT to move away from manual processes and legacy systems will support better utilisation of non-traditional assets (e.g. batteries and Demand Side Response (DSR)). If these technologies are used where they can provide balancing and system services at lower cost, this will help to reduce overall electricity balancing costs.
Increasing the transparency of dispatch decisions is key to understanding where assets have been ‘skipped’ (ie they have not been used despite being the lowest cost option) and will help to identify where further change is required.
Marked ‘in progress’ because NESO is part way through a programme to replace its legacy dispatch systems (‘Open Balancing Programme’), due to complete in 2027. This, combined with cultural and other process changes, will support better integration of smaller and aggregated assets.
NESO’s proposed GC0166 license change, which is currently awaiting decision, would allow batteries to be used for longer than 30 minutes, enabling them to compete to bring down prices over the peak.
NESO is also due to publish a consultation on balancing costs and launch its 2030 Operability Strategy over the coming months.
Improve efficiency of UK-EU electricity trading to reduce wholesale costs, and re-link carbon trading systems to encourage clean energy investment.
Wholesale prices could be reduced by £120 million to £370 million through reintegrating with the EU energy market to remove bureaucracy, allowing more efficient trading of electricity between Britain and neighbouring countries.
Marked ‘in progress’ because, at the commitments from the UK-EU Summit in May 2025, to explore the potential reintegration of GB into the EU internal electricity market and the linkage of their emissions trading schemes (ETS) has progressed but remains ongoing.
The EU has proposed a negotiating mandate position for GB’s reintegration into the Internal Electricity Market (IEM). This will approved the Council of the EU soon before negotiations can begin. Some roadblocks to negotiations appear to be emerging regarding contributions to the EU cohesion fund.
The EU Commission has been given its mandate for its negotiating position on ETS linkage. Recent publications from the EU Commission strongly signal that UK electricity exports to the EU will effectively be exempt from CBAM through recognising the UK ETS and CPS within the calculation of price already paid and also changing the default CO2 values to reflect the progress the UK has made in recent years in decarbonising its electricity. Nonetheless, the clear legal implementing text still needs to be clarified and approved in the EU but there is no indication as to when this will be.
Once the core negotiations are concluded on ETS linking, which both sides have committed to doing before the next UK-EU Summit (expected May 2026), the UK Government will introduce a Bill in 2026 to give enabling powers to achieve linkage (e.g. Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards and the Emissions Trading Scheme), whilst also supporting businesses to prepare. The aim to accomplish ETS linkage before the end of 2026.
Non-domestic: Educate businesses, particularly SMEs, about energy efficiency support, including energy audits and finance solutions.
Many businesses do not have the technical knowledge or resources to know how best to cut their energy bills and decarbonise their buildings and processes. Business Energy Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government, provides advice and access to finance to help SMEs reduce energy costs and emissions. However, there is no equivalent outside of Scotland.
Marked ‘to do’. A pledge has been made in the Industrial Strategy that through the UK Business Climate Hub, the Government will provide businesses with updated advice and resources. However, the advice will not cover technical audits or financial support, and will not provide the level of services SMEs require to ascertain opportunities to improve efficiency.
Capitalising on the benefits of a rapidly evolving system
Overall progress: 33%
Extend the length of Contracts for Difference from 15 to 20 years to reduce annual costs.
Most renewable projects rely on 15-year fixed price Contracts for Difference (CfDs). Extending these to 20 years enables developers to recover costs over a longer period, lowering contract prices in auctions. This would reduce overall scheme costs and could save households £15 – £20 per year on their bills.
Marked ‘done’ as the Government has extended the length of CfDs from 15 to 20 years. This will take effect from Allocation Round 7.
Enable £60 billion investment in electricity transmission through price control decisions to increase access to cheaper, low carbon power.
Significant electricity transmission investment is essential to accelerate the development of the infrastructure needed for Britain’s growing electricity demand and enable the connection of cheaper, more secure, low carbon energy. It is also vital for reducing the bottlenecks in the electricity network so that we do not need to pay extra to turn down wind energy as often as we do now.
Marked ‘in progress’ as the RIIO-ET3 Final Determinations provided £10.3 billion of baseline allowance expenditure for electricity transmission networks, but with the potential to rise to £70 billion over this price control period.
Make energy regulation more efficient to reduce the cost to serve customers.
The cost to supply energy in Great Britain is roughly double the cost in France at around £100. An overly complex and inflexible regulatory framework has leads to higher supplier operating costs and limits their ability to minimise other costs, such as debt.
The cost of Ofgem itself has increased by more than 200% over the past ten years.
Marked ‘to do’. In March 2025, the Government committed to cutting the administrative burden of regulation by 25% by the end of the Parliament and DESNZ is currently conducting a review of Ofgem, which is expected to conclude shortly. The review provides an opportunity to transform energy regulation to be more efficient and proportionate, reducing system costs. However, it is uncertain whether the review will drive sufficient change to support investment and innovation in the energy sector that will lower costs for customers.
Streamline planning and encourage independent network developers, to accelerate grid development to meet rising demand and reduce constraint costs.
Network charges represent a substantial and growing part of electricity bills. Accelerating network build through improved planning will help reduce system costs caused by delays, lowering these charges in the long-term.
This is particularly important for network developments addressing areas with significant constraints. For example, the proposed Norwich-Tilbury transmission line is a key infrastructure link for connecting low-cost renewables in the north with demand in the south of Britain and relieving constraints in the network.
Completing these developments on time will require boldly driving them through the planning process, but could save £50 per household in 2030.
Marked ‘in progress’ as the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, has been passed. While this is welcome, ongoing work to reform consenting processes, community benefits, and wider environmental processes mean we will need further primary and secondary legislation, consultations, and actual delivery of intended changes throughout 2026. The Fingleton Review, while for nuclear specifically, represents an opportunity more generally for environmental regulation and planning reform.
NESO has identified key strategic links to be prioritised across networks to address constraints as part of the Great Grid Upgrade. We are concerned about the delivery of these upgrades, and the wider delivery of connected generation infrastructure given continued long delays in the planning and environmental processes across the UK.
The RIIO-3 price control framework for Transmission has been finalised, and will begin in April 2026. This will result in higher network charges as the reformed queue for connections and strategic network reinforcements progress. Consumers have not had this impact explained, nor have they had sufficient detail on the importance of this investment.
There exists a risk that without a full and effective campaign to explain the importance of this investment, public sentiment will cause delays later in the process. Community opposition to new infrastructure combined with negative coverage of the cost of upgrades could cumulatively delay progress further.
The Government is now exploring options for private network companies to deliver more connections as part of its consultation on accelerating electricity network connections for strategic demand.
Speed up grid connections timescales to improve access to cheap, low-carbon power.
The grid connections queue, prior to the ongoing reform process, stood at over 750GW, with most projects having to wait multiple years to be connected. Reforming the queue would enable low-carbon generation to connect to the grid sooner, increasing the provision of cheap power and reducing dependency on the capacity market.
Many businesses also need quicker grid connections for new facilities, site expansion or decarbonisation, for example installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure or electric heating systems.
Marked ‘in progress’ as connections reform and spatial planning reforms are ongoing, with a new connection process currently being implemented for generation.
Ofgem’s ongoing end-to-end review of connections processes should set out the process for longer-term reforms as well as deliver improvements to administrative processes and incentive structures that present barriers to timely connections.
The Connections Accelerator Service has been launched, but has raised questions about whether these connections will mean other sectors and consumers have longer wait-times, and regarding who pays for any additional works required to enable those strategic connections.
NESO recently announced results of the generation connection queue reordering for Clean Power 2030 (phase 1) and for 2035 (Phase 2). However, following the recent reordering of the generation connection queue only 3GW of projects received advancements. We have concerns regarding whether transmission operators can implement the engineering works required quickly enough to allow all the phase 1 projects in the queue to connect on time. The Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) and regional spatial plans should be released toward the end of 2027, which will likely inform much of the future of the connection queue. These have been delayed from the original schedule of late 2026. Both the delays and the lack of clarity about how spatial planning and reformed national pricing frameworks will be aligned are concerning.
Ofgem released a call for input on reforming demand connections to address significant increases in applications for connection over the past few years. DESNZ is also consulting on accelerating electricity network connections for strategic demand in order to target connections for strategically significant sectors and projects.
Non-domestic: Make Power Purchase Agreements more attractive to give businesses greater access to low-cost power.
Businesses can buy power through long-term Corporate Power Purchase Agreement (CPPA) contracts giving them price certainty, enabling them to plan and invest in electrification. However, smaller businesses or those with lower credit ratings may struggle to enter into long-term PPAs due to the risk of default. Government underwriting of PPAs would help to give more businesses access to these contracts.
Marked ‘to do’, because so far, the Government has issued a high level call for evidence on how the market for CPPAs can be developed and improved for industry, including where the UK can draw from international best practice but has not put forward any concrete measures to drive the market.
Targeting public investment to guarantee significant bill reductions
Overall progress: 31%
Commit the £13.2 billion manifesto pledge to the Warm Homes Plan to enable significant investment in upgrading British homes.
The NEA estimates that more than six million households are in fuel poverty. These people need help to improve the energy performance of their homes to permanently bring down their bills.
The Government has a target to make all fuel poor households EPC C by 2030 and estimates that its £13.2 billion Warm Homes Plan (WHP) investment will support the upgrade of five million homes this Parliament, which can help to close the fuel poverty gap.
Marked ‘done’ as the Government committed to £13.2 billion to the WHP in its Spending Review in June 2025.
Ensure that the Warm Homes Plan accelerates the upgrade of low-income households and adoption of low-cost clean heat, to protect consumers from volatile fossil fuel prices and help them access the benefits of a clean power system.
A Warm Homes Plan targeted at clean heat and solar is likely to achieve large bill reductions. Analysis by Energy UK shows that, in a scenario where policy costs have been removed from electricity bills, households can save up to 64% on their energy bills through installing a package of low-carbon technologies and using energy flexibly.
The Warm Homes Plan itself suggests that, across a range of housing archetypes, the combination of clean heat, solar, batteries and insulation will save households between £130 and £442 on their energy bills. Growing the market for clean heat and other low-carbon technologies is a significant growth opportunity for the UK, with the Plan expected to unlock £38 billion in total investment during this Parliament, and creating 180,000 new jobs.
Marked ‘in progress’ because while the Warm Homes Plan has now been published, the benefits will be realised in moving from strategy to delivery, and allocating the significant investment as effectively and efficiently as possible.
The Government has set its strategy in the publication of the Warm Homes Plan, and the parameters for how it plans to invest the £15 billion budget. At the heart of the plan, is a commitment to an offer for everyone.
Some schemes will continue with expanded budgets, including the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Green Heat Network Fund, Heat Pump Investment Accelerator, and Warm Homes: Social Fund.
However, the delivery mechanism for some pots of funding still need to be co-developed with industry and Government, including how the £5 billion grant support for low-income households will be consolidated into a single scheme; the iterative development of £2 billion worth of consumer loan products together with various suggested delivery partners; and the £2.7 billion as-yet unallocated Warm Homes Fund, for which a Call for Evidence will be published. Significant regulatory changes to minimum energy efficiency standards in the private rented sector and social rented sector will be key drivers of building fabric upgrades, and be responsible for improving the homes of 1.9 million of the target 5 million homes to be reached.
Design and implement an enduring targeted support scheme, using income, health and energy consumption data to cut fuel poverty.
The NEA estimates that over 6 million households are experiencing fuel poverty. The Warm Home Discount (WHD) provides insufficient support for many of these customers, as they only receive £150 annually, which falls far below the average fuel poverty gap of £407.
This year, DESNZ expanded WHD eligibility to all households in receipt of means-tested benefits, around 6 million homes. However, as it is not well targeted, many fuel poor households will still fall through the gaps. The scheme will now provide £800 million of support in total, compared to a total fuel poverty gap of at least £1.5 billion.
An enduring, well targeted support scheme, based on income, health and energy consumption data is needed. The scheme should provide tiered support so those in greatest needed receive the most help, and it should be larger so that it adequately addresses the fuel poverty gap.
Marked ‘in progress’ because a DESNZ-led data sharing working group has been established and begun early-stage exploration of how income and health data can be used to better identify those most in need. However, more work is needed between DESNZ, HMRC, DSIT, DHSC, and DWP to make income and health data available and design an enduring targeted support scheme.
DSIT have launched a Kickstarter programme with the aims to make income data available for energy bill support. Energy suppliers are engaging directly with DSIT to provide supplier perspective when using income at a household level to better target support.
The Scottish Government has convened a Social Tariff Working Group and produced a set of recommendations on the scale and scope of a targeted bill discount scheme.
Remove policy costs from electricity bills to support the adoption of clean heat technologies and reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices.
Electricity bills are artificially inflated by the costs of government policies recovered from bills. Three-quarters of policy costs are placed on electricity. The electricity to gas price ratio for January to March 2026 is 4.7:1, meaning that consumers are disincentivised from switching from fossil to low-carbon electric heating. The Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) argues that to make clean heat the easy, affordable choice, the ratio should be cut to no higher than 2.5:1 by 2030.
Several rebalancing options are available to the Government, including moving policy costs to general taxation or shifting all costs onto gas alongside the implementation of targeted bill support for low- and middle-income households.
Analysis by Energy UK shows that removing policy costs from electricity would reduce the energy bills of a typical household with electric heating by as much as £400. Shifting all policy costs from electricity bills to gas would result in a typical household that switches to an air source heat pump saving up to £7,000 over 15 years compared to replacing its gas boiler.
Marked as ‘in progress’ because the Autumn Budget 2025 includes plans to move 75% of the Renewables Obligation costs from bills to general taxation. This is a significant fiscal intervention that is expected to cut the typical dual fuel household’s energy bills by around £67 per year, while savings for homes with electric heating will be substantially higher.
The electricity to gas price ratio will only fall to 4.3.1 as a result of this intervention, so more action is needed. The Budget commitment to improve the ratio further is encouraging, however we have not seen any action in the interim
Examine the impact of future policy costs on energy bills, and improve transparency to avoid increasing risks for suppliers, which cause higher customer bills.
Several new policy costs have been introduced recently, such as the nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB), Warm Home Discount expansion and Network Charging Compensation Scheme, have caused cashflow and profitability issues for suppliers.
More are anticipated in the short to medium term, including the Bill Discount Scheme for transmission network infrastructure, Dispatchable Power Agreement for Carbon Capture Usage and Storage, Gas Shippers Obligation and Clean Industry Bonus. They risk increasing bills and exacerbating the electricity to gas price ratio.
The limited visibility of the likely size of new costs and short notice provided before funding must commence is creating significant cost recovery risk for suppliers. This will raise risk premiums, resulting in higher bills for customers.
The Government needs to examine the impact that policy costs are having on energy bills and electricity costs, and consider options to mitigate this. It should also introduce a framework to ensure transparency and certainty surrounding the introduction of policy costs.
Marked as ‘in progress’ because the Government announced in the Autumn Budget 2025 that it will subject any new policy costs to scrutiny under a new framework to ensure they are affordable and do not impose unnecessary costs on households and businesses.
Tackle the energy debt crisis to support those struggling with bills and reduce costs for all customers.
Household energy debt and arrears reached over £4.4 billion at the end of Q2 2025. This not only affects those in debt but raises bills for all customers as the costs are socialised, with the typical household paying around £70 per year in debt allowances. This is significantly higher for those customers who pay on receipt of bills (standard credit).
DESNZ and Ofgem must work with industry to develop a holistic debt strategy to tackle the crisis. A meaningful support scheme is needed to help people who have fallen behind on their energy bills and are struggling to repay. Regulatory interventions are also required to prevent more debt building up.
Marked ‘to do’ because Ofgem has been developing a Debt Relief Scheme, but the first phase will only have a small impact on the current debt levels. The regulator is also working on a broader debt strategy but this does not appear to tackle the scale and pace of the problem. . To date, the Government has not proposed any interventions to address energy debt.
Non-domestic: Remove some policy costs from non-domestic electricity bills to lower costs for businesses.
Most non-domestic policy costs are placed on electricity bills, making electricity prices artificially high compared to gas. Removing some of these policy costs would help companies with their energy bills and enable more businesses to electrify as the transition would become more financially attractive. Modern electric heating technologies are typically more efficient and reduce dependence on imported, fossil fuels which are subject to price volatility.
Marked ‘to do’. In its Modern Industrial Strategy, the Government committed to removing some policy costs for energy intensive manufacturers in eight growth sectors through the British Industrial Competitiveness (BIC) Scheme due to start in 2027. Government is currently consulting on the BIC scheme until January 2026. However, the scheme will only help a limited number of companies (manufacturers in the frontier sectors identified in the Industrial Strategy that meet electricity intensity thresholds) and not address high electricity prices across the wider economy. Removal of some Renewable Obligation costs announced in budget will only apply to domestic customers.
Introduce targeted support for electrification, to help businesses decarbonise and reduce exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices.
There are a range of costs for electrifying different forms of heating, with some conversions involving more upfront investment or higher running costs. Even if some policy cost rebalancing takes place and the ratio of electricity to gas prices falls, there will be some more expensive heat electrification options that need more support to ensure all types of businesses can decarbonise heat and remain competitive.
Europe is introducing support to enable its industry to move to low carbon electric heating processes and systems.
Marked ‘to do’ as DESNZ is developing an Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, which should set out how the Government intends to support industrial electrification, but no funding was allocated to a support mechanism in the Spending Review. Any electrification support introduced needs to include provision for low-carbon heat networks to make them competitive with gas.
The Carbon Delivery and Growth Plan published in October committed to further policies to bring down electricity costs relative to gas, and a future consultation on options to reduce costs and make electrification an economically rational choice for a wider range of businesses and organisations. However, no funding was allocated in the Autumn Budget 2025, so the Government will need to provide adequate funding at future fiscal events.