Ministers believes a single unit price for energy has “merit” but are cautious about fully backing the proposal because it could effect vulnerable energy users.

EDF Energy made a call for suppliers to offer petrol forecourt-style prices for gas and electricity over the weekend and said this would make it easier for customers to compare tariffs.

Responding to the proposal, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said the Coalition is “actively considering” the idea as part of energy tariff reforms.

But there is cause for caution, he said: “There are potentially unintended consequences inherent with single unit pricing.”

The minister went on: “We are particularly concerned about the impact on vulnerable high energy users including pensioners, the disabled and those with young children. We need to make sure that we fully understand the potential impacts before making a decision on whether to move in this direction.”

Have you installed any energy efficiency measures in your home? If so, the value of your property could rise by 14% on average and up to 38% in some parts of England.

New research released by DECC today reveals that for an average home in the UK, improving its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) could mean adding more than £16,000 to the sale price of the property.

EPCs show how energy efficient a building is and gives it a rating from A (very efficient) to G (inefficient). They let the person who use the building know how costly it will be to heat and light and what its carbon dioxide emissions are likely to be.

In the North East, making energy saving improvements from band G to E could increase the value by more than £25,000 and the average home in the North West could see a £23,000 boost.

Energy efficient measures can be installed through the Government’s Green Deal scheme, which includes insulation and upgrading boilers.

The news follows a recent survey by consumer body Which?, which claimed prospective homebuyers in the UK are wary of buying a property that has a Green Deal loan attached to it.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “Not only can energy efficient improvements help protect you against rising energy prices but they can also add real value to your property. This Coalition is committed to helping hardworking families with the cost of living. The Green Deal is designed to do exactly that.

“The Green Deal is helping more people make these types of home improvements, reducing high upfront costs and letting people pay for some the cost through the savings on their bills. The Green Deal is a great option for anyone wanting to improve the look, feel and potentially the value of their home.”

Nearly half (46%) of properties in England are currently band D. More than 300,000 property sales in England were taken into account between 1995 and 2011 for the research.

Last month ELN also reported that half of UK householders believe trust is more important than price when hiring an energy tradesperson.

Householders across Britain will be able to get more cash for renewable heating projects, the Government announced yesterday.

DECC has increased money off vouchers available for people switching to renewable heat from traditional systems: £2,300 for ground source heat pumps (up from £1,250), £2,000 for biomass boilers (up from £950), £1,300 for air source heat pumps (up from £850) and £600 for solar thermal (up from £300).

They are part of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme designed to encourage householders to move away from traditional heating systems by offering money off the cost of the equipments. It is targeted at those living off the gas grid, where most money on bills and carbon can be saved.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “Over 10,000 householders have already taken advantage of money off renewable heating kit and we want to see even more consumers stepping up to the plate and getting on board.

“But I want to go even further. I want to kick start this exciting new market for consumer renewable heat technologies. This time limited, big increase in the value of vouchers for hardworking people who want to do something positive to install money saving green heating in their homes, should be a real boost for this growing green sector.”

Householders will be required to undertake a Green Deal assessment before submitting a claim to the Energy Saving Trust to redeem their vouchers.

The Solar Trade Association (STA) said the announcement is great news for solar heating.

Stuart Elmes, Chair of the STA’s Solar Thermal Working Group added: “This announcement is, at last, a tangible demonstration of Government’s oft-proclaimed commitment to domestic renewable heat technologies. Many within industry had wavered in their belief that they would ever see a domestic RHI! We now need to get the good news out there and let householders know that solar heating is more affordable.”

Earlier this month, the Government also announced a £6 million renewable heat fund for social landlords.

The number of households in fuel poverty in the UK showed a “modest” fall, according to the Government.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published its annual report on Fuel Poverty Statistics today, which revealed the number of UK homes struggling to pay their energy bills fell from 4.75 million in 2010 to 4.5 million a year later.

The number of fuel poor households in England also dropped to 3.2 million in 2011, from 3.5 million in 2010. Any household spending more than 10% of its income on fuel is believed to be in fuel poverty.

DECC suggests the reduction was due to rising incomes – particularly among lower income households at risk of fuel poverty – and reduced energy usage.

However, the “fuel poverty gap”, which measures the depth of fuel poverty, i.e. the difference between households being in or out of fuel poverty, rose by £22 million to £1.15 billion in 2011.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “I am very encouraged by this modest fall in the number of households living in fuel poverty. But there is absolutely no room for complacency. There is still an unacceptably high number of people living in cold, damp, unhealthy conditions.

“However after years of year on year growth in the number of fuel poor households we are starting to make progress but the Coalition Government is determined to do even more. While we can’t control volatile international energy prices, which always have the potential to undermine progress, it is clear that our determined focus on improving home energy efficiency is proving a highly effective weapon in this battle.”

Social landlords can now put in their bids for a share of funding worth £6 million for renewable heating in tenants’ homes across Britain.

Part of the extended Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme, the project will help registered providers of social housing install heat pumps, solar thermal panels and biomass boilers.

It will be run by the Energy Saving Trust and the bids will be judged on a range of criteria including value for money, fuel to be replaced, additional energy efficiency measures to be installed and plans to work with local communities.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “This new investment in renewable heat projects will enable social landlords across Great Britain to get innovative renewable heating kit into the homes of their social tenants. This will help save money on energy bills and provide low carbon alternatives to traditional heating systems.”

Social landlords already allocated money under previous rounds of this competition are eligible to apply for further funding for new projects. The first round of successful bidders will be announced this summer.

A new code of conduct with clear and easy guidelines to help businesses manage and cut their energy bills and take efficient measures is underway.

The Energy Managers Association (EMA) and its partner companies will be writing the guidelines in a “standardised” way for what it calls Energy Performance Contracting (EnPC).

Lord Redesdale (pictured), CEO of the EMA told ELN: “We believe that energy prices are going to double over the next five years in this country. If you’re a business and you’re not taking your energy seriously you’ve got real problems. An energy performance contract is a way that somebody else meets the financial cost of upgrading and reducing all your kit, making it more efficient, reducing the amount of energy you use and you pay for it out of the savings.”

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker showed his support by video message saying: “There is no doubt in my mind about the huge opportunity for Energy Performance Contracting to unlock energy savings but I am regularly told that a key barrier to its greater uptake is the lack of standardised contracts, undermining confidence in the market.

“For this reason I am extremely encouraged by the stakeholder-led approach of the Energy Managers Association, working with customers and suppliers to develop guidelines for Energy Performance Contracts together with a system of self-regulation. I am strongly in favour of market solutions before resorting to requirements that may tend towards a one size fits all strategy.”

The EnPC industry is believed to be worth $10 billion (£6.4bn) in the US but only around £300 million in the UK due to the lack of standardisation here. The EMA believes once the standards are in place, it could be a “massive growth area” in the global low carbon sector which is expected to be worth $4 trillion (£2.6tn) by 2015.

Abu Dhabi is said to be planning a scorching amount of investment with the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in the UK’s clean energy sector.

Tomorrow Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s state-backed renewable energy company will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the GIB during a state visit to the UK by President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Buckingham Palace. DECC has been unable to confirm the figure but press reports suggest it could be as much as £1billion.

Masdar has already invested over £500 million through its stake in the UK’s London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. The Green Investment Bank began lending money this year and in total has £3billion to encourage firms to spend on green energy and efficiency technology.

Now the two will look at ways to jointly invest in green infrastructure projects in the UK over the next seven years.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said the alliance was a “huge vote of confidence” in the UK clean energy sector, adding: “This agreement is about more than just money. Given the pioneering Low Carbon achievements of Masdar, it makes strong strategic sense too”.

Energy Minister Greg Barker officially opened a new national solar centre (NSC) in Cornwall today.

The town of St Austell was picked as home for the centre because most of the UK’s solar PV installations are found in South West England with around 56,000 installations in the region. Cornwall itself offers the most sunshine hours of any county in the UK.

The BRE National Solar Centre will host research, analysis and testing and training facilities, working with local partners such as the Eden Project, Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust, Plymouth University, and Exeter University.

Today’s UK solar market is valued by some at £1.5bn and estimates suggest this could rise to £24.1bn by 2020.

Speaking at the launch, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said the NSC would push forward the nation’s growing solar industry: “Not only will work carried out by the Centre help to cut costs, improve efficiency and drive forward innovation in this sector, it will also help position the UK as a top destination for global investment in this exciting technology.”

He also claimed the Coalition Government has “finally put solar on the map”, adding that later this year the Government will launch its first-ever solar strategy.

His comments may raise eyebrows in some circles after last years’ solar subsidy fiasco when the Government tried to slash the feed-in Tariffs so severely it was taken to court by a group of solar firms. Judges ruled the surprise cuts were “unlawful” and the Government now has to give industry ample warning of subsidy changes. Solar firms and DECC appear to have patched up their differences now.

The UK Government has joined a public-private initiative to tackle deforestation and help address climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker (pictured) pledged support to the Tropical Forests Alliance 2020, which provides a forum to share best practice with major private companies that have adopted sustainable supply chains and encourage other Governments and firms to take similar steps.

Mr Barker made the announcement during a meeting with Donald Steinberg, Deputy Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington yesterday.

He said: “The urgency of tackling climate change is clear and limiting global warming to 2°C limit will be extremely challenging – if not impossible – without a significant reduction in deforestation before 2020. With up to 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from deforestation, tackling this issue is a central part of how to address climate change, support greener growth and sustainable development.”

The Alliance, established last year, is a partnership set up by the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) – which is an industry network representing more than 400 retailers and manufacturers – and the US Government. Norway and the Netherlands have also been invited to join the group.

Energy intensive businesses can slash their climate taxes by up to 90% if they commit to “stretching” efficiency improvement targets to 2020.

The Government’s new voluntary Climate Change Agreements (CCA) scheme covers around 9,000 industrial sites across the UK and offers participating businesses cuts on the Climate Change Levy (CCL) charges in return for meeting efficiency goals.

Under the new proposals if a sector meets its efficiency target, it gets an exemption from 90% of the climate tax imposed on electricity usage and 65% on gas and solid fuels.

The new targets are expected to improve overall energy efficiency by 11% across all sectors and cut carbon emissions by 19 million tonnes by the end of the decade. A total of 51 industrial sectors, including steel, aerospace, ceramics, plastics and surface engineering, have signed up to the scheme.

Greg Barker, Minister for Climate Change said he is “impressed” by the commitment shown by the UK energy intensive industry to improving their competitiveness and efficiency.

Ray Gluckman, Chair of the CCA Working Group of the UK Emissions Trading Group (ETG) added: “The ETG appreciates the extensive consultation undertaken by DECC on this important element of climate change and energy efficiency policy. The targets are challenging but provide industry with some degree of certainty over the goals to be achieved over the next eight years.”

Consulting Group NIFES, which advises businesses on energy efficiency, said there are many options available for firms to be more efficient.

Managing Director Anthony Mayall said: “Often saving energy slips off businesses’ radar as they focus on negotiating tariffs and minimising energy taxes but the rising carbon prices will encourage more energy saving measures. Every kilowatt saved makes a UK manufacturing site more competitive in the global landscape and saving energy is used by many of our clients as a source of competitive advantage. There are great opportunities for operational teams to buy into energy saving since much of the spend is on process, an area which is often considered “no go” due to fears of affecting production quality.”