The Chancellor has pledged to lower household energy bills by scrapping an earlier scheme designed to improve energy efficiency.
Reeves told MPs her proposals would cut the average household bill by £150 from April.
She said the current Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, introduced by the Conservatives, “costs households £1.7bn a year on their bills and for 97 per cent of families in fuel poverty, the scheme has cost them more than it has saved”.
Matthew Copeland, the Head of Policy at National Energy Action, a charity working to end fuel poverty, said: “Taking £150 off bills from April is a good thing, but reducing energy costs by cutting the UK fuel poverty scheme will damage our efforts to help households in poverty in the long run.
“By scrapping the ECO scheme with no successor and no Warm Homes Plan yet in sight, The Treasury has removed the only national scheme focused on fuel poor homes.”
The ECO, introduced in 2013, was designed to improve energy efficiency and cut carbon emissions.
However, Reeves called it a “failed scheme” and said removing it, along with other legacy costs, will “get energy bills down and cut the cost of living.”
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said addressing high energy bills “will prevent hundreds of thousands of children from growing up in poverty and help households across the country keep the lights on.
“These commitments mark a vital turning point. We hope the Government continues in this direction, as there’s still more to do to ensure every household can live a life free from poverty.”
The Resolution Foundation, a think tank, also praised the Chancellor’s decisive move “to ease cost of living pressures with welcome support on energy bills.”
Copeland added that the Budget falling on the same day as National Energy Action’s Fuel Poverty Awareness Day no longer felt like a coincidence but “fateful”, as the ECO scheme was scrapped.
