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.
Plans are for the creation of “hydrogen village trials” which would force up to 2,000 homes in the trial area to convert their home heating and their appliances to hydrogen. The development of new sources of hydrogen were set to be paid for through a levy on households which was proposed in the Energy Bill.
Clauses also increased the powers of access granted to fossil fuel companies, which could theoretically involve forcibly installing hydrogen boilers without residents’ consent.
On Monday (24 April), the Energy Bill passed its latest stage in the House of Lords and will now move to the House of Commons where the Government can seek to overturn amendments – and MPs can try and introduce new changes.
An End Fuel Poverty Coalition explainer on how hydrogen could impact fuel poverty levels has been produced and can now be read online for people wanting to learn more about this new development: https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/about-fuel-poverty/is-hydrogen-the-solution-to-high-energy-bills/