The National Audit Office (NAO) is being urged to launch a full-scale investigation into whether households are being ripped-off by rising green levies on their energy bills.
Consumer watchdog Which? wants an annual review of the renewable tariff being thrust upon customers, and to see it subjected to the same scrutiny as taxpayer-funded spending.
Scottish Renewables – which represents the sector north of the border – said last night that the support the industry received remained a small portion of consumer energy bills.
Subsidies for windfarms and other low-carbon measures make up about £185 of the average £1,247 household bill; more than twice what it cost five years ago.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “People will not feel confident they are getting a fair deal unless the government, along with industry and regulators, ensures these costs are open, transparent and subject to robust scrutiny lake any other form of taxation.”
Jenny Hogan, Director of Policy for Scottish Renewables, hit back, saying: “A small proportion of ‘green support’ which is paid for through consumer energy bills is for renewables. Of the average annual household energy bill, which now stands at more than £1,200 per year, £30 goes to supporting large-scale renewables which are generating the equivalent of around 40% of Scotland’s electricity needs.”
The NAO will publish the findings of a one-off investigation into new windfarm subsidies this autumn.
