A report from the UK’s House of Lords has found that the government has failed to implement “credible plans” for the country’s transition to decarbonisation of the power grid by 2035 and overall net-zero by 2050. Of particular criticism were plans to use the regulated asset base model (under which developers of power plants can begin to charge users as soon as construction commences) to fund new power generation capacity – this, according to the review committee, would mean higher energy bills for those already struggling to pay them. Instead, the committee has recommended that the state borrows capital to fund the building of new generation capacity.

This was not the only area of criticism, however. The government was also failing to incentivise households to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, and had not addressed what to do about those dwellings that might not be able to be fitted with heat pumps, the committee said. The energy regulator Ofgem was also criticised for poor performance.