Labour’s Energy Bill Could Open HMRC Records to Energy Firms, and ‘Those Most Able to Pay’ Would Foot the Bill

News | By Matt, Editor

Your HMRC income record. Your child benefit file. Your pension, your benefits, the Valuation Office’s record of your home. Those are among eight government databases that ministers say could be shared with energy companies under Labour’s Energy Independence Bill, which Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh put before Parliament on 4 November.

The stated aim is to target help with bills at households that need it. The catch is in the government’s own paperwork. If a future scheme is paid for through energy bills, the costs would “fall principally on those most able to pay”, according to the department’s impact assessments, first reported by The Telegraph.

In plain English: the state works out who can afford more, using its own files, and the energy bill does the rest.

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Key facts

• The bill amends sections 36 and 37 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. Today those sections only allow data sharing with energy suppliers to help households in fuel poverty.
• The department’s impact assessment lists at least eight datasets “which could potentially be used”: HMRC income, HMRC child benefit, DWP means-tested benefits (including Pension Credit), DWP disability and carer benefits, DWP pensions, energy performance certificates, Valuation Office property data and installation data.
• Nothing is shared on day one. Each scheme needs its own secondary legislation, and the government says no new scheme is expected before winter 2028/29 at the earliest.
• A separate assessment says ministers could “obligate energy suppliers to participate in a scheme and share data about customers”, and could prescribe how a scheme is funded.
• The bill has not yet had its second reading in the Commons.

What the government’s papers actually say

Strip out the jargon and the documents are fairly candid. The data-sharing assessment, signed off by energy minister Michael Shanks on 2 November, says many of the schemes the powers would support “will be redistributive” and that this “is likely to redistribute energy costs from higher income households to lower income households”.

The schemes assessment goes further on who pays. It sets out “progressive” as a guiding principle and says that, depending on the data, “there may be options to spread the costs more fairly among consumers based on ability to pay”. Among the options it floats, purely as an illustration, is a rising block tariff, where the first slice of energy is cheap and heavier users pay more for the rest.

It also admits the price of doing nothing. Today’s Warm Home Discount gives £150 to households on means-tested benefits, with the cost loaded onto everyone’s bills. Ministers want something they can target more precisely, and they want it set up by regulation rather than fresh primary legislation each time. The i Paper reports the documents say households not eligible for help “are expected to face higher bills” if a scheme is bill-funded.

And there’s a line that should worry anyone who thinks this stays voluntary. For now the sharing power is “permissive”, so departments aren’t forced to hand anything over. But the assessment says plainly: “DESNZ will explore compulsive data sharing powers in the future.”

🚨 Exclusive

Labour gives energy companies powers to snoop on tax records

‘Big Brother’ tactics alleged as bill paves way for levy on wealthier households to subsidise othershttps://t.co/nSARV7YEis

— Camilla Turner (@camillahmturner) November 8, 2026

“A big brother state”

Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, told The Telegraph the government was waging “class warfare” on energy bills.

“Labour will always find a new way to make you pay more so it can hand out ever more in benefits,” he said. “Working people did not vote for a big brother state that spies on them and sends them a bigger energy bill.”

He added: “This energy bill raid is just the latest chapter, with families who work hard and do the right thing told to pay more so others can pay less. This is an outrageous abuse of government power.”

Labour is giving energy companies access to your tax records, income and property values so they can work out how much more to soak you for to subsidise everyone else's bills. https://t.co/SzvumDYOwI

— Toby Young (@toadmeister) November 8, 2026

The reaction online was fast. One post from the Cut My Tax campaign warned the information “will invariably fall into the wrong hands”. Lord Young’s post on the story had been seen more than 130,000 times by Monday morning.

It is frankly very worrying that Labour is granting energy firms access to everyone's tax records. This information will invariably fall into the wrong hands and be used for criminal and other nefarious purposes.

It's not just tax information but also child benefit records,… pic.twitter.com/3ojaIlij3u

— Cut My Tax (@CutMyTaxUK) November 8, 2026

The government’s answer

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said calling the plans “big brother overreach” was “misleading”, and that the bill does not change anyone’s privacy or data protection rights.

“The measure in the energy independence bill is supported by industry and will help us target future support to households who need it the most,” he said. “This is one of the steps we’re taking to make bills fairer for households.”

That’s the case for it, and it isn’t nothing. The 2022 energy crisis help went to everyone, millionaires included, because the government had no way to tell who needed it. The department also chose not to amend a wider data-sharing section, section 35, because of what its own assessment calls “heightened privacy, legal and regulatory risk”.

HMRC could share tax records with energy firms to determine who pays higher bills https://t.co/haHRc3oAlU

— The i Paper (@theipaper) November 8, 2026

Why it lands badly

This is the same bill that would ban new North Sea oil and gas licences, which we covered when Nigel Farage called it “an act of economic vandalism”. It arrives days after John Healey’s £100 winter energy payment, where £350m is set to go to the richest fifth while nearly 700,000 of the poorest households get nothing. Targeting, it seems, is fine when it’s the taxpayer’s money going out and less fine when it’s a policy that actually tests who needs help.

It also sits awkwardly next to the row over digital ID. Burnham says he scrapped it, yet as we reported, its machinery now runs through 264 government services. People are entitled to ask how many more doors are being opened between the state’s files and private companies.

A long read but worth it.

The Energy Independence Bill and supporting government documents were introduced last week.⁠ It has massive over-reach and possibly enables energy companies to charge well-off tax payers more than those in poverty.

The Bill amends the Digital Economy…

— Stuart Powell (@stuartpowell) November 8, 2026

Our view

Nobody objects to helping a pensioner in a cold flat. But the way to do that is through the benefits and tax system, openly, where Parliament votes on who pays. This bill does it the other way round: it builds a pipe between HMRC and your energy company, then lets ministers decide later, by regulation, how much extra the “able to pay” should cover. Bills are already high because of net zero levies and network costs. Loading a means-tested surcharge on top, worked out from your tax file, is a tax in all but name, and it should be called one.

Should energy companies ever be given access to your HMRC tax records? Vote in our poll below.

Sources

• UK Parliament: Energy Independence Bill (Bill 176), introduced 4 November 2026
• DESNZ impact assessment 14: Information relating to design and delivery of energy assistance schemes, 2 November 2026: eight datasets, redistribution, future compulsory powers
• DESNZ impact assessment 21: Schemes for providing support for energy costs, 2 November 2026: supplier obligations, funding options, winter 2028/29
• The Telegraph, 8 November 2026: Andrew Bowie quotes, DESNZ response, “those most able to pay”
• The i Paper, 8 November 2026: “expected to face higher bills”

Main image: Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, official portrait, House of Commons / Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0, with a smart prepayment meter, SpicyPhoto, CC0. Social images also use photos from HM Revenue & Customs (OGL 3) and the House of Commons (CC BY 3.0).

Related

• ‘An Act of Economic Vandalism’: Labour’s ‘Energy Independence Bill’ Would Ban New North Sea Drilling
• £350m of Labour’s £100 Energy Payment Goes to the Richest Fifth While 700,000 of the Poorest Get Nothing
• Burnham ‘Scrapped’ Digital ID — So Why Is Its Machinery Now in 264 Government Services?