(qlmbusinessnews.com Fri, 29th Sept, 2023) London, UK —
Anticipated £73 Rise in UK Energy Bills Come January.
Consultancy firm Cornwall Insight has forecasted that annual energy bills for the average UK household could rise by £73 in January. This expected increase would push the total annual energy cost for such households to approximately £1,996, which is within the official price cap set by the UK's energy regulator Ofgem.
The energy price cap establishes a limit on how much energy suppliers can charge households for each unit of energy they consume. Cornwall Insight attributes the projected January price hike primarily to rising wholesale energy prices.
This rise in energy costs comes as millions of UK households are set to experience lower energy bills starting from 1 October, with the implementation of the next price cap. Under the new cap, a typical dual-fuel household is expected to pay £1,923 per year until December, a reduction from the previous three-month period when it was £2,074. However, despite this decrease, bills remain significantly higher than those in 2021.
Regarding the upcoming rise in January, Cornwall Insight expects energy bills to approach the £2,000 mark again. Dr. Craig Lowrey, Principal Consultant at Cornwall Insight, commented that although it is disappointing to see the trend of falling energy bills over the past year “stall,” it is “not wholly unexpected.”
Dr. Lowrey emphasized the need for policies to address the possibility that high energy prices have become the new normal. He stressed that tackling persistently high energy prices would require a range of solutions, including targeted support like social tariffs or investments in energy efficiency, to ease the burden on vulnerable households. However, he also highlighted that these measures cannot fully mitigate the effects of volatile international energy markets on bills and that a transition toward secure and sustainable domestic energy sources is crucial to stabilize energy prices.
A coalition of 140 organizations and MPs has called on the UK government to consider implementing a social tariff to assist with energy bills this winter. In an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the group stated that such support would prevent people from having to choose “between heating and eating.”
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