The Energy Bill passed its latest stage in the House of Lords on Monday 24 April and will now move to the House of Commons1. Peers backed campaigners' calls to prevent energy firms from passing the cost of proposed hydrogen development onto bill payers, but did not back calls to ban energy firms from forcibly entering people's homes to convert their heating to hydrogen1.
The Bill proposed a levy on households to pay for the development of new sources of hydrogen1. It also contained clauses that increased the powers of access granted to fossil fuel companies, which the End Fuel Poverty Coalition says could theoretically involve forcibly installing hydrogen boilers without residents' consent1. The campaign group describes plans for "hydrogen village trials" which would force up to 2,000 homes in the trial area to convert their home heating and their appliances to hydrogen1.
"The House of Lords backed calls from campaigners to prevent energy firms from passing the cost of proposed hydrogen development onto bill payers. But they failed to back [calls to ban energy firms from forcibly entering] people's homes to convert their heating to hydrogen."
The Coalition's account sets out the two changes it sought and the outcome of each:
| Amendment sought | Lords outcome |
|---|---|
| Prevent hydrogen development costs being passed to bill payers | Backed1 |
| Ban energy firms from forcibly entering homes to convert heating to hydrogen | Not backed1 |
Why it matters for households
The levy as proposed would have added hydrogen development costs to household bills, on top of the policy costs and levies already carried by bill payers. The Lords amendment, if it survives, would keep that particular cost off domestic bills. The decision not to ban forced entry leaves open the possibility, as the Coalition describes it, that residents in a trial area could have their heating and appliances converted without their consent. For a household, that bears on whether the choice of heating system, and the cost of running it, sits with the occupant or with the network. The Coalition has published an explainer on how hydrogen could affect fuel poverty levels1.
What happens next
The Bill now moves to the House of Commons, where the Government can seek to overturn amendments and MPs can try to introduce new changes1. No date has been reported for that stage.
Sources1 cited
- Lords back campaigners’ call for changes to hydrogen trials - End Fuel Poverty Coalition, endfuelpoverty.org.uk