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A government attempt to justify its green energy efficiency policies by providing evidence to show how they are driving down energy bills has back-fired after critics rounded on the claims.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change government released a report this week showing how government measures to improve energy efficiency, such as the flagship Green Deal retrofit programme, were helping to reduce the rise in gas and electricity bills.

According to the analysis, household bills are on average 5% lower than they would be without government action, and that by 2020 government would have cut 11%, or 拢166, off the average bill.

But the report sparked a row, with critics pointing out that the government鈥檚 analysis contained assumptions that householders would invest in newer more energy efficient products, such as TVs and fridge freezers 鈥� and that if those assumptions are removed government鈥檚 green policies could add nearly 拢300 to annual energy bills by 2020.

Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint said ministers were 鈥渟hamefully鈥� attempting to 鈥渕ask the real impact of its policies on families鈥� energy bills鈥� and called for the government to 鈥渙verhaul the energy market and deliver fair prices for the public鈥�.

Sustainability expert David Strong said the government鈥檚 analysis could be used by critics it undermine the commitment to energy efficiency and the debate was 鈥渦nhelpful鈥� to the industry as it helped prolong ongoing uncertainty over the government鈥檚 commitment to green policies.  鈥淭here is clearly a group of individuals who are not of the mind that energy efficiency improvements are worth doing,鈥� he said.

He added that it was difficult for firms to invest in the capacity to undertake energy projects 鈥渂ecause of the dithering that is going on with energy policy鈥�.