Day 16 · Proposal 15 · Master Policy 18

Abolish Energy Standing Charges

No daily charge simply for being connected. Legitimate costs recovered fairly — with regulation against profiteering.

Manifesto 1.1 proposes abolishing standing charges for domestic electricity and gas.

Energy companies would instead recover genuine and legitimate network and administrative costs through the unit price of energy.

The purpose is not to pretend that maintaining the energy system is free. Networks must be maintained, customers must be billed and essential administration must be funded.

Fair cost recovery — not profiteering.

1. Abolish domestic standing charges

Households would no longer face a separate fixed daily electricity or gas standing charge.

The bill would instead be driven more directly by the energy consumed.

2. Recognise that the system still has real costs

Electricity and gas networks require maintenance, administration and customer-service infrastructure.

Legitimate costs include:

Network maintenance: genuine costs of maintaining and operating the domestic energy system.
Administration: billing, account management and necessary service administration.
Unit-price recovery: legitimate costs reflected fairly in the price paid for each unit of energy.

3. Put regulation between cost recovery and profiteering

This is the central safeguard.

A supplier should not be able to respond to the abolition of standing charges by imposing an excessive unit-price increase that simply recreates the old charge or generates an unjustified additional margin.

Regulatory scrutiny should test whether unit-price changes are supported by legitimate cost recovery.
The framework should distinguish genuine network and administrative costs from excessive pricing or disguised profit.
The reform should be judged on the total effect on household bills, not merely on whether the words “standing charge” disappear.

What this proposal does NOT say

It does not say network maintenance or administration costs disappear.

It does not promise that every household's total bill will automatically fall by the full value of today's standing charge.

It does not permit suppliers to recover whatever unit price they choose.

And it does not treat profiteering as a legitimate network or administrative cost.

4. Keep implementation open to scrutiny

The principle is established, but the detailed implementation remains open.

Manifesto 1.1 does not yet specify a regulatory formula, permitted margin, exact cost-allocation methodology or transitional timetable.

Those details should be developed transparently and tested before implementation.

5. Questions that still need answering

Which regulator should approve or scrutinise the method used to move legitimate standing-charge costs into unit prices?
How should genuine network maintenance and administration costs be defined and evidenced?
What mechanism would identify an excessive unit-price increase or disguised standing charge?
How should very low-energy users be protected while avoiding unfair outcomes for households with unavoidable high energy needs?
Should suppliers publish a transparent breakdown showing the costs being recovered through unit pricing?
What transitional arrangements would prevent sudden price shocks?
How should this reform interact with the Social Energy Tariff?

A connected affordability programme

Proposal 15 follows the Social Energy Tariff.

Together, the two proposals approach household energy affordability from different directions: targeted support for households facing financial pressure, and structural reform of the way domestic energy bills recover fixed system costs.

Core commitment:

Abolish domestic electricity and gas standing charges. Allow genuine network and administrative costs to be recovered fairly through unit pricing. Use regulatory scrutiny to prevent excessive unit pricing, disguised standing charges and profiteering.

Read. Question. Challenge. Improve.

This is a public-scrutiny working proposal. Questions, evidence, objections and alternatives are welcome.

The implementation detail should improve where scrutiny exposes a fairer or more workable route.

Website: manifesto1.co.uk
Submissions: submissions@manifesto1.co.uk

Source: Manifesto 1.1 Complete Working Master, 1 September 2026, Part V – Energy, section 18 / Major Promise 16. Day 16 / Proposal 15 is the campaign release identifier.