A consortium of more than 30 companies and green bodies are to pen a letter to David Cameron warning that his plan to cut green levies will increase bills for poor households, reported thanks to Inside Housing

It is understood that the letter, which is expected to be sent to the prime minister next week, will state that Mr Cameron’s pledge to ‘roll back’ green levies in order to reduce fuel bills will worsen fuel poverty and have ‘severe consequences for jobs’ in the retrofit sector.

In Wednesday’s prime minister’s questions Mr Cameron infuriated Liberal Democrats by determining to reduce green regulations and charges, including the £1.3 billion-a-year energy company obligation, in response to Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills.

The move was branded ‘short-sighted’ and ‘potentially very damaging’ by the UK Green Building Council and was attacked as a ‘panicky U-turn’ by Lib Dems.

Now the UKGBC is thought to have coordinated organisations including Forum for the Future, Green Alliance, Jones Lang LaSalle, Gentoo, Saint-Gobain, Travis Perkins, and Willmott Dixon to sign a letter to be sent to the prime minister opposing the move.

The organisations are expected to warn that if ECO is rolled back it will have the perverse effect of increasing bills for vulnerable and low income households and lead to large scale job losses.

Social landlords rely on ECO funding to carry out retrofit works in homes that reduce fuel bills, and lift low-income families out of fuel poverty.

Under ECO, energy companies pay subsidy funding pooled from energy bills to landlords to carry out energy efficiency works in homes in order to achieve carbon savings. If they fail to meet their carbon reduction targets by 31 March 2015, energy watchdog OFGEM can fine providers 10 per cent of their global turnover.

However, energy companies have struggled to spend cash under ECO and have claimed it will cost double the £1.3 billion a year the government expects to deliver.

As a result, they have blamed energy price hikes of around 10 per cent announced over the past two weeks on the cost burden of green levies.

The government has said that green levies cost consumers £112 a year, of which ECO costs £50.