Programmes helping households to save on their heating bills have faced significant cut backs since 2012. These cuts have seen a drastic fall in the numbers of houses receiving help to warm their homes - statistics show that the figures have fallen by 75%.
Research conducted by the Association for Conservation of Energy (ACE) has shown that efficiency schemes has fallen by 80% since 2012 from 1.74 million, to just 340,000 in 2016. A previous fall was rescued by the introduction of the Green Deal and the energy companies obligation (ECO) - the former has since been abandoned with the government citing that the take up was 'too low'.
Julian Morgan, managing director of the switching service Energy Advice Line, said that this behaviour was unacceptable.
"More needs to be done to help homes, as it does businesses, to help people understand their energy bills, make sense of the tariff, and find out where cut backs can be made in order to start making some significant savings.
"What a lot of people don't realise is that while savings start by switching supplier, it's this colder time of year that bills peak and users need to be more conscious of where they should be making cut backs."
A spokeswoman for the DECC said: “This government is serious about making vulnerable people’s homes warmer and keeping energy bills low. That is why we are increasing support for those who need it most – the fuel-poor and vulnerable – whilst reducing the impact on people’s energy bills by cutting support for those able to pay.”
Meanwhile, the Energy Bill Revolution, an alliance of 200 organisations and businesses, said the blame for the “devastation” to the country’s home energy efficiency programme lay with Chancellor George Osborne.
If you want to find out more about how your energy bill works, and get independent, impartial advice on how to reduce your energy spend; contact energyadviceline.org.uk