More I-made-it-up-on-the-way-in energy policy from David Cameron: this time, the commitment in last week’s PMQs to review green levies. This policy seems to have been made following a pincer movement from Tory backbenchers, who blame green levies for all those annoying windmills in their constituencies; the opposition, who are demanding action on energy prices; and some of the energy companies themselves, who claim that an exaggerated share of price rises are due to Renewable Obligation (RO), Contracts for Difference (CfDs) and all the other schemes that can be put under the green levies banner.
Of course what comes under that green-levies heading – the contents of the £112 on bills specified by the PM – is an assortment of different levies with differing effects. CfDs, RO and Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) are true green levies; they levy a payment obligation on energy companies to underwrite support for low carbon technologies. The Energy Company Obligation, meanwhile, covers several schemes supporting greater energy efficiency in homes: retrofitting of insulation in hard-to-treat properties and the reduction of bills for those in fuel poverty through insulation and efficiency measures. Warm Home discount knocks some money off fuel bills for elderly people. And the smart meter levy is slowly starting to put the roll out costs of smart meters onto customers’ bills. The Carbon Floor Price looks like a green levy but doesn’t actually save any carbon in its own right and all the revenue from it goes straight to the Treasury anyway. The EU-ETS does save carbon but is a variable amount based on trading allowances across Europe.
So the above melange is what makes up the £112 and logically therefore, now that a review has been declared, it’s what will be reviewed. And it’s fair to say that there’s not much point in having a review, unless there is a result. To swear solemnly to review all this and then declare that there is nothing to see after all so please move along now, won’t wash. So something will presumably be reviewed out.
But what, exactly? The process of running up a short list started, as far as I can see, almost as soon as the PM had left the chamber. Lib Dems started rumbling about saving green levies (presumably the actual green levies) and Nick Clegg weighed in with a push in the direction these levies should be placed into general taxation (a policy suggested by some of the Big 6).
So within a week, the review has begun to look a little different. I think DECC, recovering its composure after the surprise announcement, put out some ‘press guidance’ (not a press release, mind) to the effect that Renewable Obligation, CfDs and Feed in Tariffs would not be in the review. I say I think, because Energy Ministers in the Commons and the Lords said opposite things on the same day, and Ed Davey refused to confirm whether the green levies would be in the review when I directly challenged him about it during the Annual Energy Statement on Thursday.
But I suppose they would be out, not least because it is difficult to see how they can easily be reviewed. Renewable Obligation and FITs are pretty much fully allocated and there might be a number of protracted legal actions if this support was suddenly taken away. In any event, RO will end in 2017 anyway and FiTs are due to be reviewed further and have already just been reviewed. CfDs don’t exist yet, but some are in the process of being allocated for the future, most notably to that energy company building our new nuclear power station. That might be difficult to untangle.
So that leaves non-green levies in the green levy review. The big one, of course is the Carbon Floor Price. Not really a levy, it’s actually more a tax and as such one that goes straight from the power plants to the Treasury. Treasury in fact gets about half a billion pounds a year from it, with the trajectory of the income rising rapidly as the floor price increases. Oh and don’t forget that the Treasury has set out and planned to receive this revenue in the ‘Red Book’. So I doubt that George would be desperately happy about the loss of several billion pounds of actual and imminent Treasury revenue if the Carbon Floor Price was reviewed out. I also doubt that he’d impressed by the prospect of the further loss of spending power that would occur if green levies were transferred into general taxation. Of course there is also the marginal issue that EDF (yes the same company that has graciously agreed to scoop up the subsidies to build a new power station) is getting almost a billion pounds a year by selling the output from the existing, ageing nuclear fleet (which is CFP exempt) at the same price as (non CFP exempt) gas. And the loss of this money could further tip the still delicate nuclear ‘deal’ over the edge.
And then there’s the business of underwriting the smart meter roll out, which will, in the fullness of time, be levied through energy companies and charged to the bill payer. This will be about £12 billion. I’m not sure the Chancellor would willingly transfer that liability into general taxation either.
So we’re left with poor, old, non-performing, benighted ECO. It was the scheme that was going to replace warm front and other energy efficiency measures at no cost to the taxpayer and is still, we hope, going to insulate and retrofit all those energy inefficient and draughty homes across the country. And this urgently needs doing if we are to get to any sort of grips with energy efficiency and produce lower carbon emission homes in the future.
That’ll be the one then. Review sorted. Look out for the demise or downgrading of ECO shortly, as the only prisoner that it’s actually possible to round up and make walk the plank. And meanwhile the individual responsible for this utter shambles lives to make up another policy on the hoof as soon as he’s cornered again.
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