Ed Miliband has been Energy Secretary for nearly 18 months — and until now, there’s been very little that actually reduced household energy bills.
That may finally be changing.
In this video, I break down Labour’s new Warm Homes Plan, including:
• A new levy on gas bills
• Lower electricity costs to encourage heat pumps
• A big shift towards solar panels and batteries
• Fast-tracking plug-in solar for renters and flats
This is the first policy I’ve seen that could genuinely cut energy bills for **some** households — but it also creates clear winners and losers.
I explain:
• Why electricity is still so expensive
• Why gas dependence is being punished (even when it isn’t a choice)
• How renters may finally benefit from plug-in solar
• Who is most exposed to higher bills under this plan
This isn’t about politics — it’s about whether this plan will actually work in the real world.
Let me know in the comments: **would this help your household, or make things worse?**
Links to articles – behind paywall either apple or the times – sorry
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🔗https://apple.news/AWW2ytWRjSr242rQJ6mrISg
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30 Comments
Stop paying for wind turbines when they're not working
Just scrap the standing charge
Donald !! We need your help over here too.
In the Netherlands we pay a levy (or energy tax) of €0,074 per kWh on gas and €0,111 per kWh on electricity.
This includes 21% VAT on the energy tax, and both natural gas and electricity are also charged with 21% VAT.
This pretty much makes a Heat Pump a no-brainer in terms of running cost and with a grant on every heat pump install, even in hybrid setup, it's hard to believe people are still clinging to gas boilers.
Until 2027, the solar export cancels out the energy tax for electricity on the yearly bill. After that we need batteries.
Energy suppliers with fixed prices pay very little to nothing for solar export because we simply have too much in summer when it is abundant.
They were supposed to do net metering until then, but have found a workaround by adding export costs to the contracts.
I would not be surprised if the low export rates will follow the UK in time as more people get solar panels.
The balcony solar systems are a really nice way to be more self-sufficient for people who can't afford or don't have the roof for a full home install.
If anything I would recommend the UK government to help people insulate their homes, regardless of the heat source.
Expanding the grant to hybrid systems for homes that don't have a lot of space for water storage, are afraid of depending on a heat pump alone or just too hard to insulate would also be smart.
A reduced amount is logical, but not having to repipe a home and replace radiators makes a huge difference. In my home the ASHP goes up to 45 Celcius and in very cold weather the gas boiler is activated to provide the higher temperature needed by the radiators. We are talking below -5 Celcius outside without sunshine and in windy conditions before it is needed, but it's nice to have that certainty and the gas boiler just provides DHW most of the year.
We have the high electric bills as the cost of the green energy like wind power was from us. However the waste of power is dreadful. They literally pay companies not to send "free" energy from wind as it is more than they need. We need large scale deployment of gigawatt battery storage to support the windfarms and keep them running when the wind blows.
He let the energy prices rise for 18 months now they are giving a bit back
Johnathan,
you say you get 4Kw hr of heat from 1 Kw hr of electricity.
True on face value but disingenuous.
Electricity is expensive, much more than gas (Despite gas being taxed) because of what is involved in generating, transmitting and distributing, none of which comes cheaply. Made more so by the extensive capacity of renewables connected to the grid. Contrary to government claims, renewables are hugely expensive and will will keep on being so.
Do any of you utube’ers ever get to the point?
This is the usual unimaginative default position of this government ( as well as any other government) in that if you are in Social Housing /Universal Credit Etc …We will bend over backwards to use other tax payers money to help you but anyone else who is not in this position but not really any better off …You will have to sort this out yourself…. Gaslighting the mainstream public they are trying to sort out high energy bills will backfire miserably….
Balcony solar is a massive and easy win for the Gov.
Those wind turbines cost 3 million pounds each and every one who is paying for them Not Miliband that’s for sure
totally pointless policy. If electricity prices go down people buy less solar and batteries. meanwhile, people who cant afford heat pumps will have increased heating bills which can lead to poor health
Balcony solar with EcoFlow is definitely a good idea – I purchased mine just in October. However be aware there will be days especially in the UK where you get little to zero generation due to cloud and low sun during the winter months. I currently run my pc and printer and charge up my usb lights with what I generate which saves around £1 a day. This is from a total of 1000 watts of panels which are affected adversely by various items causing shading. It will be better in the summer. Being able to plug into the main system via a socket would save more in that my pc etc does not use a full days supply. We are told plugging into a normal socket is dangerous and can cause fires – so if you are able to produce a video on this specifically it would be helpful. This is an excellent explanatory video – thank you
Dick Ed Milliband is costing everyone a fortune , its amazing how damaging Kier , Khan and Ed are.
As someone still with gas central heating so my bills will go up and I fully expect it to be more expensive than now overall. However it's long since overdue to move green levies from indirect gas use to direct gas use.
People suffer. Milliband is privileged and cares not for the poor as long as he leaves a mark. Such politicians should suffer. We follow the plans and ideas for a better world but as with Osborne, Blair, Milliband and others when the people suffer who is there to help and compensate when the elderly die from the cold and others who starve without money!!??
Taking away the climate element. Making electricity from gas is much cheaper than what it costs to buy direct off the grid. The costs of electricity are not just the fuel source and comparing the two very different fuel sources is not ideal as gas is very cheap to extract and distribute vs. Electricity distribution on the same kWh terms.
Energy bills will go up not down. NESO have already projected that.
Simply subsidising some people's bills by charging others is simply rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic
I already have zero energy bills.
I have solar, battery and gas boiler.
My electricity is free from solar or cheap from off peak charging.
I genuinely can't see further saving on off peak electricity. Only a few pence off the peak rate.
It will hit me with gas heating.
The levy should be on new gas boiler. Not the fuel. This way it makes a replacement boiler make a heatpump more competitive
Solar is not worth. It worth only interest rate is less than 2%
Interesting, I don't see how the electricity you produce from a portable solar / battery system plugged into the house will feed the house before it takes energy from the grid. As a pensioner I would love solar with battery storage but being on a fixed income even with a grant it would probably be out of our reach, any return on investment would probably be well after we are no longer living. Good for some though.
I think iti s a move in the right direction by moving the levy to gas, however we are still waiting for the government to unlink electricity prices from gas. This would drive the electric revalution much quicker and save everyone more money.
Good idea from Ed for once, but i sm biased – we already have got rid of gas, got ASHP, solar + batteries and two EV's. I do think the government should mandate that all solar and wind farms should have a certain amount of battety storage to try and balance the grid a bit more. It is unfair that solar is the cheapest way to generate power and also the least reliable. This is why we pay high bills because we have to pay these solar/wind farms to switch off. That goes on our bills too…
Another 50 pound a year on my gas bill wouldn't make the slightest difference to make me get rid of my gas boiler for a heatpump
Good policies. Gas is too cheap. My energy bills have been at less than zero for years. Not my problem if others are too stupid to figure this out. Just went down further when I installed an ashp this year, thanks to battery storage.
IFF you cant get a Dustcart on net
Zero then why do we waste money
On uncertain Technology, ?
Monday 5th Jan 7.15am – Gas is having to step in to provide over 60% of our electricity at 23.64GW/h
(see iamkate)
Half the off-peak energy to charge your EV, house batteries came from Gas last night
This safety net costs & any increase to gas won't see electricity come down but actually increase
The Spark Gap is just another scapegoat to blame energy prices on, moving levies from one to the other is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul – when in reality Peter needs Paul & Paul needs Peter to work together, so you have to pay both in the end
Even Greg Jackson has recently admitted if the wholesale drops to zero it would make virtually no difference to our energy costs, it's the levies, yet moving them to gas is simply "gas-lighting" (excuse the pun), as it will backfire and almost certainly end up costing more for the gas safety net we have to have on standby for times like right now
Thank you you need to continue the updates on this as I have a number of people I know who are entrenched about the actions that the government are taking to try and improve our energy infrastructure.
The lunatic Milliband intends to rob the poor and gift the wealthy. How? He punish those using the current cheap options and offer discounts to those using electricity. Bear in mind, electricity is currently the most expensive energy to use. Heavens help us all 😢
I like you videos, but why are you getting excited about a £30 a year switch from Electric to Gas. I've always thought that if you want people to use less gas then move the costs away from Electric, but come on £30 a year. It's a joke.