In a letter to MPs on 25th November, the UK Government announced that its energy bill support for off-grid households and park homes will not be delivered until at least January. Bath MP Wera Hobhouse said that the delay was ‘beggars belief’.

The UK Government has previously made payments to households via domestic energy bills, but there are 900,000 households in the UK without such a supply who have yet to be reached. Residents such as those at Quarry Rock Gardens in Bath fall into this category.

Now, in a letter to MPs, Energy and Climate Minister Graham Stuart announced that the £400 payment will be delivered through an online application and processed by local authorities. The scheme will open to households across Great Britain in January 2023.

There will also be a £200 payment for households which use fuels such as heating oil or liquefied petroleum gas for heating, but this will also not be delivered until January at the earliest.

Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, commented:

“Off-grid households and people living in park homes need support with their energy bills now. It beggars belief that it has taken the Government months to realise that they would have to work with local authorities to make this happen only then push support back to next year.

“Frankly, we need to see Ministers across Government redouble their efforts to provide support as quickly as possible. Another Conservative Government is letting yet more people fall through the cracks.”