Report

How can we keep gas bills affordable?

The gas bill of an average household has risen from €1,200 a year in 2021 to €1,900 in 2023, potentially rising further to €2,300 in 2030. This is mainly due to:

  • Structural changes in national natural gas supply, such as more LNG imports resulting in higher prices;
  • The shift of energy tax from electricity to gas, the green gas blending obligation and ETS-2, which requires energy suppliers to pay for the CO2 emissions of their energy supply;
  • Rising costs per gas connection as fewer and fewer households have a natural gas connection.

A rising gas bill encourages households to take sustainability measures, such as energy conservation, and therefore helps the energy transition. However, it is a problem for households that are unable to take sustainability measures as well as paying or partially paying their energy bills. In this study, we refer to these households as: ‘vulnerable households’. The number of households experiencing ‘energy poverty’ in the Netherlands is at least 400,000 and is rising.

In this policy paper, we have developed eight policies that will keep gas bills affordable while maintaining the price incentive for sustainability.

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