Majority of people not proud of post-Brexit Britain, survey reveals

The majority of Britons do not feel proud of their country, a new survey has revealed.

The wide-ranging polling on attitudes also suggested that people increasingly believe the UK is divided, that so-called culture wars exist, and that life was better in the past.

Researchers from King’s College London (KCL) said a “frightening increase in the sense of national division” that began post-Brexit appears to have “morphed into” party political and other splits around immigration and “culture wars”.

The findings, which are from the college’s policy institute and pollster Ipsos, showed that less than half of Britons now have a sense of pride in their country, falling from 56 per cent to 46 per cent in the past five years.

When it comes to a feeling of division in the UK generally, 84 per cent of people said they feel this way, up from 74 per cent in 2020.

Exactly half of people said they believe the culture in the UK is changing too fast, up from just over a third (35 per cent) five years ago, while a similar amount (48 per cent) say they would like their country to be “the way it used to be”. This is up from around a quarter (28 per cent) in 2020, and the findings showed a rise across all age groups.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the policy institute at KCL, said: “This latest study shows a frightening increase in the sense of national division and decline in the UK in just a few years. We’ve seen steep rises in the beliefs that the UK is divided, that ‘culture wars’ are real and that things were better in the past.”

The poll also suggested that 86 per cent of people now feel there is tension between immigrants and people born in the UK – up from 74 per cent in 2023 and marking a new high.

And the findings show public opinion on transgender rights has “shifted significantly”, researchers said, with those saying these rights have “gone too far” more than doubling since 2020 – now at 39 per cent, up from 17 per cent.

The view has become more prominent among all age groups, and while fewer than a fifth (19 per cent) of 16-to 24-year-olds feel this way, this has more than doubled in the past five years, up from 9 per cent in 2020.

Overall, 19 per cent of all those asked said they felt transgender rights have not gone far enough in the UK, down from 31 per cent in 2020.

The polling of 4,027 people aged 16 and older in August came four months after the Supreme Court ruling, which said the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Elsewhere, almost half (48 per cent) of the public said they consider being described as “woke” as being an insult, rather than a compliment – up from under a quarter (24 per cent) in 2020.

Woke is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as being “aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality”.

Mr Duffy said the UK had lived through “an incredibly divisive period around the EU referendum and its aftermath” and that division appears to have “morphed into party political and other splits, with attitudes to immigration and the speed of culture change more generally at the heart of them”.

Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, said: “Perceptions of political and cultural disharmony are growing, reflecting a society grappling with nostalgia, the pace of change, and growing tensions over immigration, and with polarised views over what terms like ‘woke’ signify.”

But he cautioned that: “On many issues there is no clear consensus, with a need to understand the differences under the topline figures; it should not be forgotten that many people are not on the extremes in their views.”

James Watson, discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, dies age 97

James D. Watson, the pioneering scientist whose co-discovery of DNA’s double helix structure in 1953 reshaped our understanding of life, has died at 97, his former research lab confirmed.

His groundbreaking work, undertaken at just 24, earned him a revered status in the scientific community and, alongside Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, a Nobel Prize in 1962. Their revelation that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) forms a double helix – two strands intricately coiling into a twisted ladder – ignited revolutions across medicine, forensics, genealogy, and ethics.

That realization was a breakthrough. It instantly suggested how hereditary information is stored and how cells duplicate their DNA when they divide. The duplication begins with the two strands of DNA pulling apart like a zipper.

Watson’s later years were marred by widespread condemnation. He faced severe criticism for making racist remarks, notably asserting that Black people possess lower intelligence than white people.

Even among non-scientists, the double helix would become an instantly recognized symbol of science, showing up in such places as the work of Salvador Dali and a British postage stamp.

The discovery helped open the door to more recent developments such as tinkering with the genetic makeup of living things, treating disease by inserting genes into patients, identifying human remains and criminal suspects from DNA samples and tracing family trees. But it has also raised a host of ethical questions, such as whether we should be altering the body’s blueprint for cosmetic reasons or in a way that is transmitted to a person’s offspring.

“Francis Crick and I made the discovery of the century, that was pretty clear,” Watson once said. He later wrote: “There was no way we could have foreseen the explosive impact of the double helix on science and society.”

Four more mistakenly-released prisoners at large – as manhunt for sex offender ends with arrest

The sex offender mistakenly released from prison last week was arrested by police in London on Friday after being spotted by a member of the public – as justice secretary David Lammy admitted there was a “mountain to climb” to tackle prison system crisis.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was serving a sentence at HMP Wandsworth in southwest London when he was set free on 29 October, sparking a nine-day manhunt. The Algerian national was arrested in Islington.

Kaddour-Cherif has convictions for theft and had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure.

The release, as well as that of fraudster Billy Smith, 35, who handed himself in on Thursday, has piled pressure on Mr Lammy. On Friday night, reports emerged that four more prisoners released in error are still at large. It is understood they form part of the 262 prisoners in England and Wales who were mistakenly released in the year to March 2025.

Earlier on Friday, during his arrest, Kaddour-Cherif tried to claim he was somebody else. The officer said: “We are just going to do some further checks because you look exactly like the person. I’ve had a look at the photo, you’ve got a very distinctive wonky nose which looks the same as the person.”

Nadjib Mekdhia, who is also Algerian, claimed he called the police after spotting Kaddour-Cherif and said he is “glad he is in prison”.

Mr Mekdhia, 50, who is homeless and stays in the Finsbury Park area of north London, said he recognised the prisoner from a newspaper photograph.

Mr Lammy said: “I can confirm Brahim Kaddour-Cherif has been recaptured and is back in custody. My thanks are with the police and staff at HMPPS who have been working around the clock.

“We inherited a prison system in crisis and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing. I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

“That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons.”

It comes after migrant Hadush Kebatu was wrongly released from HMP Chelmsford on 24 October. Stronger security checks were put in place in prisons and an independent investigation was launched into releases in error following the blunder in Kebatu’s case.

The Epping migrant jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, which sparked a wave of protests, was accidentally freed from prison instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre last month. He was later traced.

Shortly before news of the latest incident broke, Mr Lammy had been asked in the House of Commons whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Kebatu. The deputy prime minister, who also serves as justice secretary, refused to confirm the question when asked four times.

It is understood Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker, but is in the process of being deported after he overstayed his visa.

The latest blunders were blamed on clerical errors in a system under “relentless strain”.

Housing secretary Steve Reed told Times Radio: “The problem is we’ve got a broken system, and you are going to see failings when you have a broken system.

“The key is to make sure we have a digital system so that no prisoner is ever released by mistake.

“There is not an acceptable number for this, but the way to fix it is not tittle tattle about David Lammy in the newspapers, it’s to get on and do the work and put in the investment that will digitise the system.

“David has already had the prison governors in his office yesterday, I imagine they felt pretty hauled over the coals given what’s been going on, but he was also making sure that they’re getting all the support they need to carry out the much tougher checks that will be required to make sure that the repeats of this are at an absolute minimum.”

Chris Philp MP, shadow home secretary, said: “This case sums up the total collapse of law and order under Calamity Lammy. A foreign sex offender, meant to be deported, strolling the streets of London because Labour can’t even keep track of its prisoners. He must be immediately deported as soon as his sentence is finished.

“The British public shouldn’t have to be the ones to catch escaped criminals. This is chaos, incompetence, and weakness from top to bottom, and it’s putting people’s safety at risk.

“Labour don’t have the backbone to get a grip of law and order. Only the Conservative Party has a common sense, hard-edged plan to restore order, put 10,000 extra police officers on our streets and put fear back where it belongs – in the minds of criminals.”

Colour, courage and cigarettes: Hockney’s art of never slowing down

“You have to be inventive, always,” says David Hockney at the opening night of his new show, “Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris”, which is full of bright, dynamic works that belie the energy of an 88-year-old man in a wheelchair. The grand old master is explaining how he painted the tops of the large canvases while sitting down. “I turn them on their side. There is always a way. It is what imagination is about,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.

In a brand new tweed suit specially made for the occasion, he is escorted by his great-nephew, Richard, also newly tweed-suited, who is both a family member and his assistant. “David said he was sick of seeing me in jeans and trainers, so he sent me to the tailor,” he says. Of course, the peroxide-haired and silver-tongued Hockney has always been a bit of a dandy.

The centrepiece of the show at Annely Juda’s new Mayfair gallery is a double portrait of the artist and his great-nephew/assistant together. It is dazzling, and pops with colour and zest. There is no sense of this being an old man’s work. The lines, perhaps, are sometimes a little more hazy, but the paint feels so fresh that it’s as though it hasn’t dried. The brush strokes are a little shaky, but the vision is clear and firm. The images ping against a dark blue wall, the colour chosen by the artist. This show also marks the most developed stage yet in his “reverse perspective”.

Hockney pioneered this technique, in which objects that appear further away are actually larger, and parallel lines diverge towards the viewer rather than converging. There are echoes of the colourful exuberance of Pierre Bonnard and the decisive and forthright perspective of Van Gogh – one picture is even titled Vincent’s Chair and Gauguin’s Chair. Depicting a scarlet-matted floor with purple and yellow wooden chair legs, it radiates psychedelic energy and that unmistakeable Hockney optimism.

Before the show started, Hockney held court on the pavement with the inevitable cigarette in hand. He was never going to be stopped from smoking. He explained perspective and smoking restrictions and then veered onto Caravaggio. He is very much the professor as well as the dandy gadfly, still on his long journey of development as an artist with no hint of fading into the light.

The new portraits are startling and warm and direct as he revisits the faces of friends young and old. In each, there is a strong sense of exploring and gathering joy from what he sees. He still wears a badge saying “end bossiness soon”, but what is not ending is his sense of quest. His pictures are dynamic, and make you feel as though you are somehow sharing his magic ability to look and entertain and reflect. The show also includes The Moon Room – a selection of iPad works from 2020, created in his studio in Normandy, which have a Walter de la Mare sense of stillness and delight in colour. They capture light and luminosity.

This show will travel on to Paris. The prices for Hockney’s paintings are into seven figures, and very few are for sale. So this is a fleeting opportunity to see the greatness of an ageing master who is undiminished in zest and zeal.

In London, Hockney, as ever, has the last word. “What else would I want to do? I still find the world beautiful, and I still find new ways to appreciate that and capture it. I just have to keep going!”

And with that, he is off, whizzing round the studio in his electric wheelchair, eyes ablaze and mind whirring.

Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris is at Annely Juda Fine Art in London until 28 February 2026

Joey Barton guilty of sending ‘grossly offensive’ social media posts

Ex-footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of sending “grossly offensive” social media posts.

Barton, 43, was convicted over posts on X about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

On Friday a jury convicted him of sending six counts of “grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety” just hours after it had been sent out.

Reacting to the news, Aluko said she is “glad that justice has been served”.

He was cleared of six other counts that he sent a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.

Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton he likened Ward and Aluko on a post on X, formerly Twitter, to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”.

He went on to superimpose the faces of the two women onto a photograph of the serial murderers.

Barton also tweeted Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category” as she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”.

Jurors found him not guilty on the Stalin/Pol Pot comparison, and also the commentary analogy with the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.

He was also convicted of a post in relation to Aluko in which he wrote “Only there to tick boxes. DEI is a load of shit. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM/George Floyd nonsense”.

In a statement after the hearing, Aluko said: “Social media is a cesspit where too many people feel they can say things to others they wouldn’t dream of saying in real life under the guise of freedom of speech.

“This is a reminder that actions online do not come without consequences.

“The messages directed at me, Lucy Ward and Jeremy Vine by Joey Barton were deeply distressing and had a real damaging impact on my life and career. I am glad that justice has been served.”

Ward posted a picture on Instagram which had the words “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences”, along with the caption: “It’s been an extremely difficult and sometimes harrowing last two years.

“Thanks for all the support throughout this time.”

The ex-Manchester City, Newcastle United and Marseille player – now a social commentator with 2.7 million followers on X – is said to have suggested Vine had a sexual interest in children after the TV and radio presenter sent a message querying whether Barton had a “brain injury”.

Barton repeatedly referred to Vine as “bike nonce” and asked him: “Have you been on Epstein Island? Are you going to be on these flight logs? Might as well own up now because I’d phone the police if I saw you near a primary school on ya bike.”

He was convicted over the Epstein post and a tweet in which he said: “Oh @the JeremyVine Did you Rolf-aroo and Schofield go out on a tandem bike ride? You big bike nonce ya”.

Barton was also found guilty of other tweets in relation to Vine in which he referred to him as “bike nonce” and said: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999,” and “Beware Man with Camera on his helmets cruising past primary schools. Call the Cops if spotted”.

He was cleared of guilt over three remaining tweets referring to Vine.

Barton was bailed ahead of sentencing on December 8.

The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Andrew Menary KC, noted the defendant was wearing a Union Jack patterned scarf as the verdicts were returned.

He told the court: “He has chosen to adorn himself with a particular flag which I suppose is a stunt to make a point. He will not be permitted to do that on the sentencing date.”

What is tacit knowledge – could your work skills spark a new career?

Whether it’s solving a logistical problem, navigating a tricky client meeting or being able to design, craft or build, we all have certain skills that feel straightforward to us yet can seem out of reach to others. A big part of this is tacit knowledge, the personal ‘know-how’ that individuals possess, built up over time. In a work context, this tacit knowledge can open interesting doors to potential new career paths, in which this real-world experience can be shared with the next generation of workers.

Understanding the concept of tacit knowledge is perhaps easiest when compared to its counterpart: explicit knowledge. “Explicit knowledge is something you can fully articulate linguistically and can be understood without context while tacit knowledge is something that can’t be described in the same way and needs its context to be appreciated,” Dr Neil Gascoigne, Reader in Philosophy at Royal Holloway University of London and co-author of Tacit Knowledge, explains.

Gascoigne gives the example of the famous physics equation of E=mc^2. This formula is considered a piece of explicit knowledge, as words can be used to explain the idea. However, the average person wouldn’t know how to use this formula. This is where tacit knowledge comes in. You would need to have studied physics, put your knowledge into practice and learned first-hand how to use formulas effectively in order to make the most of the explicit knowledge given.

In the workplace, a company handbook might explicitly set out the business’ practice for a certain task. However, you would need some tacit knowledge gained through work experience or time in the company to complete this task most successfully and efficiently.

As tacit knowledge is harder to explain with words, it often has a mysterious quality to it. However, as Gascoigne points out, this is only to the untrained eye. “Tacit knowledge often seems obscure to people unless they possess similar skills themselves. Without them, it doesn’t become apparent what expertise is exactly on display,” he elaborates.

“For instance, say I am watching a Grand Slam tennis match. I know there’s an astonishing kind of athleticism, but if I don’t play tennis or am not a committed tennis fan, I might not be able to tell the difference between a really great shot and a more average shot,” Gascoigne says.

This same idea applies in the workplace. Tacit knowledge is gained through experience and consequently, while we all have tacit knowledge, the areas we have it in differ. What’s more, it can even seem quite mysterious to ourselves. When we have worked in a certain industry for a period of time, we aren’t always aware of the tacit knowledge we have gained. While explicit knowledge relates to aspects of our job that we might have had to sit down and learn, our tacit knowledge is obtained in a practical way over time, by doing tasks again and again and subtly learning and improving as we go along.

After a while, we know exactly how to tackle projects or solve problems, almost without thinking. For instance, in the construction industry, this tacit knowledge would help you judge site safety or develop practical skills like site excavation, land levelling or brick laying. If you work in social care, it is only with time and experience that you can pick up on subtle emotional cues or manage crisis situations effectively. While in engineering, years spent tackling complex technical issues allow you to troubleshoot effectively, and draw on a myriad of possible solutions from projects past.

Whatever sector you work in, the knowledge needed to succeed is always a mixture of explicit and tacit, and the latter – this know-how built from personal experience, intuition, and practice – is incredibly valuable when it comes to judging real-world situations, solving complex problems and having an edge over competitors.

And while by definition, not explicit, that doesn’t mean that tacit knowledge can’t be shared. Indeed with time, attention and training, you can drill down on years-honed skills and information, and share it with others through teaching.

In fact, it is at the core of sharing your craft – and that’s far more than a simple list of instructions. “To learn how to do something, you really need to follow the example of somebody who already knows how to do it,” says Gascoigne. “These people have learnt the rules, internalised them and use tacit knowledge to know when they apply and when they don’t.”

Tacit knowledge is particularly valuable when it comes to Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree). This is because the focus is on preparing students for employment, and teachers need to draw on tacit knowledge to share how things really work in their industry. This ensures that students complete their qualifications not only with theoretical competence but also practical and employable skills.

This is why this type of practical learning that further education teachers specialise in can be so valuable. Workshop-style teaching and skills-led mentoring allows for those with experience to share the vital tacit knowledge they have built up over time in real-world scenarios. Meanwhile, those learning from them can see these nuggets of knowledge in action and have a chance to put them in practice as they learn.

If you’re passionate about your industry and interested in sharing your own tacit knowledge,  becoming a Further Education teacher can be a really rewarding and valuable career move. Further Education covers a huge range of industry sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, Further Education teachers share their years of real world industry  skills with people of all ages and backgrounds from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in Further Education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing option. Further Education offers flexible opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have a best of both worlds set-up, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule.

Whether it’s shifting your career fully or adding teaching into the mix, becoming a Further Education teacher can be a life-changing decision. One that taps into your well of tacit knowledge and creates a sense of fulfillment from helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

Why not consider sharing your tacit knowledge where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

Offshore oil workers must lose weight or face losing their jobs

North Sea oil workers have been told they must lose weight if they want to keep flying offshore, or face losing their jobs.

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said that from November next year, the maximum weight for a clothed worker should be 124.7kg, so they can be winched by a rescue helicopter in an emergency.

A coastguard helicopter can carry a maximum of 249kg, but also has to account for the weight of the average rescue worker (90.3kg), their kit (5kg) and a stretcher (29kg).

The OEUK told The Independent that some 2,277 offshore workers weighed above the 124kg limit last year.

The industry body said it had decided on the weight limit after an “extensive” review over the last two-and-a-half years, “thoroughly” considering alternatives to a weight limit.

Graham Skinner, the health and safety manager at OEUK, said the organisation will be “working really hard” over the next 12 months to ensure affected workers can lose weight.

Mr Skinner told the BBC that he could not rule out the possibility that the new safety policy would lead to job losses.

“That would be the absolute worst-case scenario,” he said, explaining that employers will now have a responsibility to try to support their workers to fall within the limit by next year.

He said it was important that a clear message be conveyed, serving as an “impetus for everyone to get behind the policy and lose weight in time for November next year”.

Those who do not meet the 124kg limit “will not get their medical and that will preclude them from getting on a helicopter”.

The decision was made to announce the policy this year so that employers could prepare their staff, offer support and address concerns within the workforce.

The policy itself was developed in response to concerns highlighted by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and will come into effect on November 1, 2026.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Skinner said there were a further 2,500 offshore workers who were “below the weight limit but might need some additional support and weight management”, meaning “5,000 is the total number of people who might be affected to some lesser or greater extent” by the policy change.

John Boland, the regional officer at the Unite union, told the BBC that “there can be support put in” to stop people from losing their jobs.

“The biggest concerns we have had are from individuals that are naturally larger built and in some cases are extremely fit but are above that actual weight limit.

Take some green levies, not VAT, off bills to cut energy costs, Treasury urged

The Government should cut energy bills by removing renewables subsidies, reducing system costs and implementing efficiency standards for landlords, a think tank has urged.

Green Alliance says the measures could reduce the typical household fuel bill by £178 a year by 2030 – and much higher savings of up to £587 for families renting draughty, inefficient homes.

Reports suggest the Treasury is eyeing up removing VAT from energy and cutting efficiency programmes paid for through bills, as it seeks to bring down costs for households to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and counter criticism about the price-tag attached to net zero policies.

Green Alliance said the Government must act immediately to lower bills, with the average household paying £478 more in October 2025 than four years earlier – and nine million UK households in fuel poverty.

But the environmental organisation said cutting VAT and energy efficiency programmes would be the wrong way to do it.

Green Alliance senior policy adviser Stuart Dossett said: “We are still very much living in a cost-of-living crisis, which has been a fossil fuel-driven energy crisis.

“There are households up and down the country that are being battered by this, and many people, as we move into winter, will be unable to heat their homes to a comfortable temperature because bills are too high.”

While the Government has “rightly” recognised the need to bring down costs, Mr Dossett argued that bringing VAT rates down to zero could immediately cut bills, but would be a “forever more move”, as it would be politically difficult to reverse.

Using the £2.3 billion the VAT cut would cost the Treasury to take some green levies – focusing on subsidies for renewables dating back more than a decade – off bills and into government spending would still reduce consumer costs.

These would include the feed-in tariffs for household solar power and some of the “renewables obligation” subsidies for early clean electricity projects such as wind farms.

It would have advantages over zero-rating VAT as the schemes’ costs will decline until their conclusion in 2037, making it a better value move for the Government, Green Alliance argues.

And as they are levied on electricity bills, removing them would give greater savings to those who rely on direct electric heating – who tend to be lower income and in deep fuel poverty because of high running costs – while also incentivising take-up of clean electric-powered heat pumps.

Mr Dossett also warned the Government should not cut spending on energy efficiency measures, which pay for insulation and other improvements for households in fuel poverty via a levy on bills.

“If the Government is serious about lowering people’s bills for good, the way to do that is investing in insulating our homes, not raiding schemes that have helped families lower their energy costs as a way of making their sums add up in the Budget,” he said.

A new paper from Green Alliance launched ahead of the Budget also says that system costs could be reduced by 2030 with a series of “no regret” options, including lowering voltage levels on the low voltage network as modern appliances are using more power than they need.

Green Alliance also advocates for putting gas power plants in a “strategic reserve”, removing them from the power market and enabling system operator Neso to determining when to generate electricity from gas, to prevent high gas prices pushing up the cost of power.

And measures to reduce the financing costs of new renewables could cut how much they cost to build and the price of the electricity they generate, while boosting their deployment and reducing the UK’s exposure to expensive fossil fuels.

The think tank also calls for the Government to implement a private rental sector minimum energy efficiency standard equivalent to Energy Performance Standard (EPC) C by 2030, to help people in rented accommodation who are often the most vulnerable to high bills.

Mr Dossett said the move would be “crucially important for lifting huge swathes of households that are currently experiencing fuel poverty out of it”.

Other measures including installing smart meters that could also help people reduce energy use and cut their bills.

Taken together, a typical household could save up to £178 a year by 2030, and a family in rented accommodation that is improved from an EPC E to a C rating and gets a smart meter, could save up to £587 in total, Green Alliance said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) said the Government did not comment on speculation over tax changes.

But they said: “The Government’s clean energy mission is exactly how we will deliver cheaper power and bring down bills for good.

“Our mission is relentlessly focused on delivering lower bills for the British people, to tackle the affordability crisis that has been driven by our dependence on fossil fuel markets.”

The spokesperson said the Government would publish an update on plans to make private rental homes reach EPC C standard by 2030 in “due course”, and was exploring options for rebalancing gas and electricity prices.