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Millions of families face a new £100 levy on their gas bills under plans to phase out conventional boilers by 2035.
Ministers want to ‘incentivise’ households to buy cleaner energy by switching existing ‘green’ levies from electricity to gas.
The idea is expected to feature in a long-awaited ‘heat and buildings strategy’ to be published this month.
The strategy is part of wider efforts to meet a commitment to slash carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
Whitehall sources last night insisted that overall energy costs would not increase because levies on electricity bills will be reduced at the same time as those on gas are increased.
Millions of families face a new £100 levy on their gas bills under plans to phase out conventional boilers by 2035
‘This is about shifting the incentive toward cleaner energy,’ said the insider. ‘It will take place over a period of years and overall bills will remain static.
‘By the time the process is complete there will be many fewer people using gas and paying the levies.’
But some Tory MPs fear the plan could spark a public backlash with gas prices at record levels. Sir Robert Syms said it was ‘politically impossible to load green taxes’ on sky-high gas bills. Calling for a rethink, he added: ‘Higher prices will do what the green taxes would have done and adjust behaviour.’ Fellow Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay called for fracking to be allowed to reduce the need for imported energy.
The centrepiece of the new strategy is a ban on the installation of
