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The coalition have today (Wednesday, December 8) introduced to parliament a bill to provide homeowners with four-figure loans to make their properties more energy-efficient. The energy security and green economy bill is expected to make power companies legally obliged to slash greenhouse gas emissions in their customers’ homes. Companies could be offering incentives, such as foreign holidays, for customers to take out ‘green deal’ loans.

Your heating bills could be costing £100s more per year than they need to be, says the UK energy regulator. Ofgem has released a series of video guides aimed at raising awareness of customers’ rights. They include dealing with doorstep sales people, and debt and disconnection.

Future oil drilling in the North Sea was dealt a blow after a high court judge said he would hear a legal challenge from campaigners Greenpeace over deep-water licences for drilling off the Scottish coast. This could see many projects blocked and existing licences quashed. It could put more pressure on the price of oil, which recently hit $120 a barrel during the Middle East crisis.

The nuclear crisis in Japan will force up UK gas prices and have a knock-on effect on energy bills, say experts. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was among 11 of Japan’s reactors to be shut down in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disasters, increasing demand for liquefied natural gas. Adam Forsyth, analyst at Matrix Group, said: “If the price rises and is consistently at a high level then it has to come through to people’s gas bills eventually.”

Energy secretary Chris Huhne has given his backing for proposals to simplify electricity and gas tariffs. “Consumers deserve the best possible deal, which means rough and tough competition in the marketplace,” he said. The ‘Big Six’ suppliers in Britain have been ordered to reform their pricing and stop confusing customers, or face a formal referral to the Competition Commission. The firms have just two months to accept wide-ranging reforms, said regulator Ofgem.

A scheme has been reintroduced which can help households struggling to pay their energy bills. The Warm Front scheme has reopened for applications, and this provides heating and insulation home improvements for England’s poorest families and most inefficient homes. Among the heat-saving measures are loft and cavity wall insulation, and draught proofing. It is hoped that the scheme will help more than 90,000 households by offering heating upgrades worth up to £3,500.

The cold spell over the winter led to a total rise in greenhouse gases in the UK in 2010. Figures releases by the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed carbon dioxide, which accounts for about 84 per cent of UK emissions, was up 3.8 per cent. Carbon dioxide emissions from homes, which relate only to heating and cooking with gas, rose by 13.4 per cent in 2010 due to shivering households turning up the heating.

High oil prices could stall the global economic recovery and “sow the seeds of their own destruction”. That is the view of the International Energy Agency (IEA) which says global oil demand this year is set to be lower than a previous forecast. Higher oil prices were among the cause of the body’s revision. “Persistently high prices at this stage of the economic cycle may ultimately sow the seeds of their own destruction,” the IEA said.

National Grid, which supplies the nation’s power, estimated that the country used far less energy watching the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton than it did during Prince Charles’s marriage to Diana Spencer in 1981. The Grid said less energy is used than on a typical May bank holiday as the nation is sat by television sets, instead of more energy-intensive activities like turning on washing machines, toasters and kettles.

About 25 per cent of households are predicted to turn off their heating at some point next winter in order to save money on rising heating bills, says a price comparison website. Uswitch stated that in January a survey of nearly 1,600 of its customers had indicated that 20% of them had turned their heating off regularly in order to save money. Furthermore, the group predicts that with fuel tariffs expected to rise, the number will be higher this year.

The government has announced plans to install all 30 million homes in the UK with a smart meter within a decade. The process of the meters being fitted will start in 2014 and trials have shown that they can reduce bills by 5 to 10 per cent. These devices take electricity readings every half an hour, daily readings of your gas usage, and transmit all the data to your supplier.

To support the construction industry, energy secretary Chris Huhne said that government policy will stop any ‘cowboy’ installers taking on jobs under the Green Deal, with registered tradespeople being given a quality mark to put customers’ minds at rest. The Energy Bill was introduced to Parliament last year and includes provision for a new Green Deal which the Government believes will revolutionise the energy efficiency of British properties.