The UK will face a shockingly new wave of high energy bills unless it works to lower its heavy reliance on gas. Experts at the Energy Crisis Commission have an urgent warning: a woefully unprepared country for another energy crisis. “Unless something fundamentally changes very quickly, we’ll see sharper increases in the energy costs that have made life more difficult over the past few years,” one said.

A Lethally Threatening Addiction to Gas
The Energy Crisis Commission has highlighted this concern. Representing business and consumer organisations, such as Energy UK, the CBI, Citizens Advice, and National Energy Action, they have recognized a very real issue: the UK remains far too dependent on gas to power the nation’s homes and businesses. Gas powers many home furnaces and feeds a significant amount of power plants, but this reliance has left the country naked. According to the Commission, far too little is being done at the national level to encourage conversion to cleaner options like heat pumps or to button up homes so that energy use is more efficient.

This isn’t news, of course. The energy crisis really started late last year, when gas prices began to soar. Things deteriorated further in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, blasting prices for energy even higher. Energy companies collapsed, and the UK government stepped in to provide financial support for households that cannot afford to pay their bills. But this is very much only a temporary solution and experts warn that without real change in place, the country could be in the very same situation again.

The Real Impact on People
This is a tale of how bad things can get,” said Adam Scorer, an executive with charity National Energy Action. “The risk of future crises is real,” he said, adding that the people who will be hit the hardest are the ones who can least afford it. Many families are already struggling to pay their bills, and another energy price shock could push them further into financial trouble.

According to the Commission report, UK’s dependence on gas had disastrous effects on its household during the last energy crisis. People in the UK felt it harder than others did, since people in most European countries were hit less by the last energy crisis. This is because, in the United Kingdom, people depend more heavily on gas for heating and the fifth for their electricity. When the prices of gas go up, it hurts British households more than any other households elsewhere.

An expensive fix, but not the right one.
The government did step in during the crisis, but the Commission was far from impressed at how things were run. In fact, it described the government’s support scheme as “poorly targeted.” It is true that the government spent more than £78 billion to help people with their energy bills, but, despite this, around 7.5 million households remained in fuel poverty. Things went worse, with more and more consumers owing money to the energy companies; this ended at around £3.5 billion.

As Citizens Advice director Gillian Cooper pointed out, slow and ineffective government action was added fuel to the fire. She identified big problems including failing energy suppliers, poor practices that include forcing people to use prepayment meters, and a lack of targeted bill support-all things that have left millions of households feeling the pains of those failures.

Why is it happening like this?
Britain has experienced situations of similar energy price shock in the past as stated by David Laws, who chairs Energy UK and the Energy Crisis Commission. This country has faced several energy price shocks of the worst kinds for businesses and households over the last half-century. In spite of the several warning signals, Britain has not done enough to protect itself against such future crises.

Laws added that future oil and gas shocks are almost inevitable, and the country is still not ready to handle them. Another crisis could be around the corner, and when it does, the blow would again be severe to the economy.

What Needs to Change?
So what to do? The Energy Crisis Commission calls for the government to get off gas and move on to cleaner sources of energy, more secure sources of energy. They also call for better energy efficiency in our homes, more insulation, higher efficiency standards, particularly in rented properties, the worst insulated in many ways.

The plan is to shift houses off gas heating and encourage them to take up heat pumps or other low-carbon alternatives. Heat pumps are an extremely energy-efficient way of heating homes, and since they do not rely on gas, they are less affected by price shocks in the gas market.

In addition, the Commission further advises the government to adopt the proposed goal of reducing the reliance of UK on gas-based power-generating plants and gradually start moving to renewable sources of energy. In such a case, the country will be protected from future increases in the price of energy .
Businesses Feel the Pain Too
It is not only the homes that are in trouble. According to Louise Hellem, chief economist at the CBI, nearly every business in the UK was impacted by the energy crisis. Small businesses, high street shops, and industries across the board were affected by the costs going up and gave them lesser chance to sustain themselves.

Hellem said it’s way past time for the government to discover why this country was so vulnerable to such price spikes. If it doesn’t fix what is causing it, consumers and businesses continue to pay for it.

What the Government Promised
The government said it will act. Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband declared that the Labour government was committed to making the UK a leader on clean energy. Miliband pointed out that since Labour came to power, they have already lifted a ban on onshore wind farms, taken a successful renewable energy auction, and introduced new energy efficiency standards for rented homes.

These measures, according to Miliband, are only the first step, and the government is keen to reduce their dependency on gas and serving to prevent people from facing a similar crisis in the future again.

Future Work
The call to the UK from the Energy Crisis Commission was a clear call to avoid another energy crisis, invest in clean energy, improve home insulation, move away from gas, and protect itself against future price shocks. But without urgent action, the threat of rising bills and price increases on people’s doorstep hangs over the most vulnerable households.