Ofgem announced earlier this month that the energy price cap between 1 April and 30 June 2026 is set at £1,641 for a typical dual-fuel direct debit household. That is a decrease of £117, or 6.6 per cent, on the January–March cap. Saving around £10 a month. Very nice.

Do not let the government spin this as a triumph. Ofgem's own analysis makes the uncomfortable point out loud: even after the April cut, bills are still 35 per cent higher than before the 2021 energy crisis. An average family is paying hundreds of pounds more per year than they were four or five years ago. That is a permanent new cost of living, not a temporary problem gradually being resolved.

Where Did The 35% Go?

Two places, mostly. Wholesale gas prices remain elevated compared to the pre-crisis baseline. Nothing a UK government can do about that in the short term. But the second driver is one the government is responsible for — and it will not talk about honestly. It is the cost of the net zero transition baked into every bill through network costs, renewable obligations, capacity market charges and the rest.

Look at the Ofgem breakdown. Global wholesale energy prices actually fell by £38 in this cap. Good. But network costs went up by £66. Why? Because of the current price control framework — RIIO-3 — which is funding the expansion of the grid to support renewables and interconnectors. That is a net zero cost. It sits on your bill whether or not the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. You are paying for the transition. And you will keep paying for it.

The Autumn Budget Sleight Of Hand

In the 2025 Autumn Budget the Chancellor announced she was "cutting bills" by £134 by moving 75 per cent of the Renewables Obligation off the bill and into general taxation, and by abolishing the Energy Company Obligation charge. Read that again. The cost didn't go away. It was moved from your energy bill to your tax bill. You're still paying for it — you just won't see it itemised on a statement anymore.

This is the entire game with net zero financing. The cost doesn't disappear. It migrates. Whenever ministers are embarrassed by how high a specific line item has become, they move it somewhere less visible. The line on the energy bill. The line on the tax bill. The line on the national debt, which future taxpayers will service. The underlying cost structure — powered by a policy of rushing to phase out reliable domestic gas while building expensive intermittent alternatives — doesn't change.

Families Feel It. Westminster Pretends Not To.

In Preston East, as across the north, people don't need OBR forecasts to tell them what has happened to their standard of living. They can feel it. The boiler costs more to run. The car costs more to fill up. The weekly shop costs more. And no amount of spinning a £10-a-month fall in the April cap is going to paper over the underlying reality that, five years on from the start of the price spike, the damage has not been repaired.

The Labour government has embraced the Conservative net zero targets and accelerated some of them. Voters were not asked whether they wanted to pay thirty-five per cent more per year for heating and electricity in perpetuity. They would have voted no. Democracy requires the cost of policy to be honestly stated. This one has not been.

What Reform UK Would Do

Reform UK would scrap the net zero target in its current form. We would restart North Sea gas and oil licensing to keep domestic supply flowing. We would strip the renewable obligation levies out of bills altogether, not quietly reroute them into the tax code. And we would put consumer bills — not international climate timetables — at the centre of energy policy.

A 7 per cent fall in a bill that rose by 100 per cent in the first place is not a win. It is spin. The British public is smart enough to see it.