OFGEM Changing The Goalposts Will Not Help Families Struggling To Pay Soaring Energy Bills. By Adam Colclough

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey has criticized plans by energy regulator OFGEM to review the price cap on energy bills every three months, instead of every six months.

The change would not come into force until October and, the regulator says, will make the energy market fairer and more resilient to shocks of the type seen recently.

OFGEM chief executive Jonathan Brearley told Sky News “A more frequent price cap would reflect the most up to date and accurate energy prices and mean when prices fall from the current record highs, customers would see the benefit much sooner”.

Adding that it will also help “energy suppliers more accurately predict how much energy they need to purchase for their customers, reducing the risk of further supplier failures which ultimately push up costs for consumers.”

Adrian Ramsey said “Changing the goalposts in this way will do nothing to help the millions of households struggling to put food on the table and pay eye-watering energy bills. Energy companies may think that such tinkering will mitigate the cost-of-living crisis, but they're not fooling anyone”.

The plan has also been criticized finance expert Martin Lewis, speaking to Sky News he said it was an anti-competitive measure that would stop energy firms from undercutting the price cap.

An IPSOS poll conducted for Sky News revealed that one in five Britons are concerned about the rising cost of living and that one in four have resorted to skipping meals to save money.

Charity Action for Children say families they work with have reported having to wear coats to keep warm and ‘living in the dark’ because they cannot afford to switch on lights.

Director of Policy at Action for Children Imran Hussain told the Guardian “The worst pain and misery of the cost-of-living crisis is being felt by children in low-income families, yet the government is refusing to target help for these children or accept that it needs to rethink its huge cut to universal credit”.

Adrian Ramsey said “We need measures that put money back in people's pockets now. That’s why the Green Party has argued for restoring the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and doubling it to £40 per week, in addition to other benefits. We also want to provide every household with an additional £320 to help them pay for spiralling energy costs”.

The need to act on the cost-of-living crisis is made more urgent by the impact it is having on people’s health.

A YouGov poll conducted for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found that out of the 2001 people questioned 55% felt their health had been made worse by higher bills for food and heating.

The impact is being felt, the data shows, by people with existing and sometimes life-threatening health conditions who cannot afford to travel to hospital for treatment.

People questioned about the impact of the rising cost of living on their health who reported it as being negative cited increased heating costs (84%), and the rising cost of food (78%) as contributing factors.

Speaking to the Guardian Dr Andrew Goddard, the president of the RCP said “The cost-of-living crisis has barely begun, so the fact that one in two people is already experiencing worsening health should sound alarm bells, especially at a time when our health service is under more pressure than ever before”.

In addition to the measures he outlined to address the short-term impact of the crisis action must be taken to protect people from further energy price rises. Adrian Ramsey said “we need to see a massive nationwide insulation programme over the next decade. This could reduce energy bills dramatically while ensuring that everyone has energy efficient homes to live in”.

Adding that “the introduction of a carbon tax on the fossil fuel companies - who are making colossal profits on the back of the cost-of-living crisis - would help pay for such a retrofit programme”, something Green Party law makers in the Republic of Ireland have successfully campaigned for .