Senior Conservative MPs have urged Liz Truss to launch a public information campaign to encourage people to reduce their energy use after No 10 blocked the idea over fears it would seem like the actions of a “nanny state”.
Iain Duncan Smith, a former cabinet minister and supporter of Truss was one of several MPs suggesting the government was wrong to rule out a campaign, from warnings from National Grid of potential blackouts this winter.
The Guardian revealed this week that ministers had discussed a potential campaign with National Grid and energy suppliers.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, reportedly signed off on a £15m campaign but this was later blocked by Downing Street.
Duncan Smith told the Guardian that a campaign should be launched. “I think it’s better than doing nothing. I know what they’re frightened of – that people think we’re getting lectured by the government when they should be helping us out. That’s probably their concern at Downing Street [but] I think there are ways of doing it.
“A pamphlet delivered to every door would work. The government should pick up the cost but it should include experts independent of the government and the energy companies giving advice on how to minimise your energy use and the financial support available with lists of websites and telephone numbers.”
Duncan Smith said his local authority, Waltham Forest in London, was distributing information to constituents on support for finances and handling energy costs.
He added: “People have got used to low interest rates and energy costs. You notice people walk around at home in T-shirts even in winter, when in the past you always used to put sweaters on. The truth is that there has been a whole generational shift about what people think about how they ought to use energy. Now energy is a big part of their budget, and understanding how to reduce that cost without damaging our lives is quite helpful.
“My instinct is that quite a lot of people are quite ignorant about how to manage this and it’s therefore helpful for them to understand and change their lives dramatically.”
Duncan Smith’s views were supported by fellow Conservatives Guy Opperman, a former minister, and Simon Hoare, the chair of the Northern Ireland select committee.
Opperman said he was fully behind an energy-saving campaign, as the “energy war of Putin means this is a worldwide problem”, adding: “Reduction in energy helps constituents save money, and saves the taxpayer money, as public sector should lead the way. Reduce usage, while we address supply. Government must act.” Hoare retweeted a post saying: “We are using vast amounts of taxpayers’ money to pay for energy bills this winter, but the argument for not launching a public energy saving campaign is because it is too interventionist?”
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, also called on Truss to change her mind.
“It is entirely possible and sensible to give the public factual information about how they can save money on their energy bills,” he said.
“It would be wrong for Liz Truss to block the provision of this kind of information because of dogma or embarrassment about the energy crisis that failed Conservative energy policy has caused.”
Truss’s refusal to launch a public information campaign was confirmed on Friday morning by Graham Stuart, the climate change minister, who told Sky News: “We’re not a nanny state government.”
Asked if people should use less energy, he said: “We are not sending that out as a message. All of us have bills, of course, and the bills have gone up.” He said the government had stepped in to “protect” businesses and families from rising energy bills.
Stuart later outlined why a general message to use less energy would “probably make no difference”.
“We’re also hesitant to tell people what they should do when we’re not a nanny-state government,” he told LBC. “What we are prepared to do is talk to the big energy users and talk to consumers with smart technology about rewarding them for reducing energy at the peak times.”
Rees-Mogg was believed to have backed a £15m campaign this winter with measures designed to help people save up to £300 a year, including lowering the temperature of boilers, turning off radiators in empty rooms and advising people to turn off the heating when they go out.
The Times quoted a government source describing the campaign as a “no-brainer” and said No 10 had made a “stupid decision”, but it added Truss is said to be “ideologically opposed” to such an approach as it could be too interventionist.
The prime minister said in her party conference speech that she would not tell people what to do. Rather than a new public information campaign the government is looking at “signposting” existing guidance.
Stuart told Sky News he did not recognise the reports. “I don’t recognise that,” he said. “We are in an iterative process of policy development and ideas, and we come to a conclusion. So, the idea there was some highly developed campaign … passionately devoted to and No 10 nixed it, I don’t recognise that.”
Truss on Thursday sought to downplay concerns, although she stopped short of explicitly offering a guarantee of no blackouts. Her remarks came in response to a report from the body that oversees Britain’s electricity grid.
In what it called an “unlikely” worst-case scenario, the National Grid’s electricity system operator (ESO) said households and businesses may face planned three-hour outages to ensure the grid did not collapse. It was the most dire of three possible scenarios the ESO laid out on Thursday for how the grid may cope with the worst global energy crisis for decades.
In the other two scenarios, the operator hopes that by paying people to charge their electric cars at off-peak times, and firing up backup coal plants, it can offset the risk of blackouts.
A government spokesperson said: “The UK has a secure and diverse energy system. We have plans to protect households and businesses in the full range of scenarios this winter, in light of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
“To strengthen this position further, we have put plans in place to secure supply and National Grid, working alongside energy suppliers and Ofgem, will launch a voluntary service to reward users who reduce demand at peak times.
“We will continue to work internationally on tackling rising energy prices and ensuring security of supply, but there are no current plans to follow the EU’s decision. However, ministers are not launching a public information campaign and any claim otherwise is untrue.”
