BBC News,
The coalition government has outlined its proposals to reduce energy bills in the wake of rising costs.
Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, said their plans would cut bills by an average of £50, in an article in the Sun on Sunday.
They said the government would pay for some measures currently included in bills and the cost of insulating homes would be spread over a longer period.
Labour has called the government's energy policy a "shambles".
Its leader Ed Miliband has said that should his party win the next election, it would freeze gas and electricity bills for 20 months.
Discounts for poorest
But in the Sun on Sunday article, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg also attacked Labour's energy plans, saying they would reduce energy bills "without taking any help away from poor families or sacrificing our green commitments."
They said that the "two million poorest families who currently receive a discount on gas and electricity will continue to do so", but the government would pay for the discount, instead of it being included on energy bills.
That will reduce annual bills by approximately £12, the BBC understands.
The money to pay for the discount would be paid for from extra tax money brought in from cracking down on tax avoidance, they wrote.
And they confirmed a BBC report from earlier this week, that the cost to energy firms of insulating homes - "apart from in the worst off homes" - will be spread over a longer time period - thought to now be increased from two years to four, up to 2017.
They said the proposal would reduce people's bills, but did not specify by how much.
Representatives of the insulation industry have told the BBC they fear this will mean significant job losses.
The Association for the Conservation of Energy said from what it has seen of the government plans it anticipates around 10,000 jobs will be lost because they believe the change represents a halving of the budget for the work they carry out.
Government 'hoodwinked'
Andrew Warren from the Association for Conservation of Energy told the BBC: "It beggars belief that the government is trying to cut energy bills by delaying a scheme that itself cuts energy bills.
"The government has been hoodwinked by the Big Six energy firms, who don't want to insulate people's homes because it means less profits for them."
Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg said the government would also pay for new incentives for people to insulate their homes.
They wrote: "Alongside the Green Deal, when you buy a new home, you could get up to £1,000 from Government to spend on important energy-saving measures - equivalent to half the stamp duty on the average house - or even more for particularly expensive measures.
"It's an all-round win: better insulation means cheaper bills; it's how we cut carbon emissions; and it will boost British businesses who provide these services."
In addition, landlords will be offered cash incentives to insulate their least energy-efficient properties between old tenants leaving and new ones moving in.
Government sources have not given a detailed breakdown of the figures, saying specific details will be announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his Autumn Statement in Parliament on Thursday.
Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg also strongly criticised Labour in the article, saying the opposition's plan to freeze energy bills is "taking people for fools".
"Energy companies would hike up prices both before and after the freeze - so families would end up paying more. Not only that - by cutting investment in green energy, their freeze would threaten thousands of jobs," they wrote.
E.On - the only one of the big six energy companies in the UK that has not yet announced an increase in its tariffs this autumn - said: "As is right, we will wait for a formal statement from the government but we are pleased that steps seem to be being taken that will ultimately benefit our customers.
"As we have promised from the outset, any changes will be passed on pound for pound, penny for penny in the fairest way possible."
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