By Vivienne Russell | 1 July 2014
The Treasury should produce and publish an assessment of the long-term affordability of consumer bills across all utility sectors, the Public Accounts Committee said today.
In a report, the PAC noted that consumers would be expected to fund around two-thirds of the country’s £375bn investment needs through their bills for energy and water services.
However, the MPs warned that the interests of consumers and what they could afford were not always a top priority.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge noted that median incomes have not get pace with the rise in the cost of utility bills.
‘No one in government is taking responsibility for assessing the overall impact of this investment on consumer bills and whether consumers will be able to afford to pay,’ she said, adding that poorer households were particularly hard hit.
‘We are calling for the Treasury to produce and publish an assessment of the long-term affordability of bills across the sectors. They need to establish with departments and regulators who is responsible for what in each sector when it comes to assessing the long-term affordability of bills, and pull all the information together.’
Hodge added that regulators also needed to play their part, ensure that infrastructure had been built to expected standards and to improve consumers’ interests.
