The green energy tax burden on households will get even bigger if the chancellor does not act now, Bury St Edmunds MP David Ruffley has claimed.

The Treasury select committee member warned that the £2.8bn cost of green policies this year was just the 'tip of the iceberg' and called for a change in green policy.

Yesterday, at a Free Enterprise Group event, he urged George Osborne to 'make a statement of intent' and set out which levies he will scrap in next month's Autumn Statement.

The backbencher, who is a member of the Tory MP faction, said that using Department for Energy and Climate Change forecast figures he had calculated that the cost in the average energy bill would rise from its current £112 per household to £280 per household in 2020.

The Suffolk MP said: 'The current impact of green taxes this year on all 25.4 million households that pay energy bills is £2.8bn.

'Green taxes are the costs that energy companies pass on to us in our energy bills for what the government makes them do: insulating low income householders' homes; discounting poorer pensioners' bills; paying more for electricity generated using the technology that the Government has guaranteed the price of – wind, biomass, solar and so on.'

Mr Ruffley said: 'So I want to see a statement of intent from the chancellor at the Autumn Statement – outlining which green levies he believes should be scrapped. Just switching the cost of expensive green policy from our energy bills to our tax bills won't wash.'

However, his figure does not take into account the savings which policies such as home insulation could have on bills and the Department for Energy and Climate Change argues that while cost of policies will increase going forward in order to support increasing low carbon investment, household dual fuel bills were estimated to rise by less than in the absence of policies and in 2020 households were estimated on average to save around 11pc (or £166) on their energy bills compared to what they would have paid in that year.

Mr Ruffley made his claims at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

A DECC spokesman said: 'The government is looking closely at the impact of green levies on consumer bills and how the measures they support are paid for.

'Details of the review will be announced in the Autumn Statement, providing clarity for long-term decision making by industry.'