Budget 2026 - energy bills and energy security: comment

"This is now the fifth winter where Britons are staring down the barrel of very high energy costs caused by wars in Ukraine and now Iran. The less gas we use, the less exposed we are to the whims of global gas markets.  

"With the North Sea’s oil and gas deposits already 90% depleted, if we are going to have a realistic conversation about energy security in this country, we need to be talking about electric heat pumps. Unless we urgently deploy many more of these – and continue to scale up home-grown, low-cost renewables to power them – British households will be facing many more winters of dependence on foreign gas to keep warm.  

"Today’s moves to decouple electricity and gas prices is one long-term measure in this Budget that will help to enable this urgently needed shift to electricity, including home heating."