The UK Government’s immediate response to the energy crisis<\/strong> caused by COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine<\/strong> has been praised by the National Audit Office (NAO)<\/strong>, which has described the plans implemented as an \u2018unqualified success\u2019.<\/p>\n
However, the measures were designed to protect businesses and households from soaring energy prices, which have seen average annual bills jump from \u00a31,277 in 2021-2022 to almost \u00a34,000 by early 2023.<\/p>\n
Between 2022 and 2023, the government launched eight support schemes, including the Energy Price Guarantee<\/strong>, costing \u00a344 billion\u2014far below the initial estimate of \u00a3139 billion. Factors such as lower-than-expected wholesale energy prices<\/a><\/strong> and a milder winter in 2022<\/strong> contributed to the reduced expenditure.<\/p>\n
Due to the haste with which the government has implemented universal support<\/strong><\/a>, the NAO<\/strong> has recognized the dangers of value for money. Although the majority of eligible recipients benefited, the NAO found cases where money was paid to people who did not need it. There was relatively little fraud and error; only 0.7% of payments, or \u00a3291.8 million<\/strong>, were considered problematic.<\/p>\n
The NAO emphasized the need for DESNZ to refine its approach for future crises. Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, noted: \u201cDESNZ needs to prepare for future energy price spikes and understand how potential interventions can maximize value for money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts to improve engagement and tailor support more effectively are already underway. A DESNZ spokesman stressed the importance of clean, homegrown energy<\/strong> to reduce reliance on volatile fossil fuels, stating: \u201cOur mission for clean power by 2030 is key to achieving energy independence and reducing household bills.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As energy prices soared to unprecedented levels, the UK government rolled out \u00a344 billion in support schemes to shield households and businesses. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9378"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9402,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions\/9402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}