Energy price cap to rise in January

Household energy bills are predicted to rise at the start of next year as higher gas and electricity prices push up the regulator’s price cap.
Ofgem is to expected to reveal on Friday that a typical household’s dual-fuel energy bill will rise by £19, or 1 per cent, to £1,736, according to Cornwall Insight, the energy consultancy.
This is higher than the current price cap, which increased last month to £1,717 a year for a typical consumer.
Cornwall Insight had earlier predicted a fall to £1,697 but it said that this was no longer the case because “forecasts show that prices will be staying relatively high for the remainder of winter”.
It said that prices were still expected to fall slightly in both the second and fourth quarters of next year.
Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: “Supply concerns have kept the market as volatile as earlier in the year and additional charges have remained relatively stable, so prices have stayed flat.
“While we may have seen this coming, the news that prices will not drop from the rises in the autumn will still be disappointing to many as we move into the colder months.”
Cornwall said that options such as social tariffs, adjustments to price caps, benefit restructuring or other targeted support for vulnerable households “should be seriously considered”.
More than four million pensioners are at significant risk of fuel poverty after winter fuel payments were scrapped for about ten million people. The payments, worth up to £300, will only go to those on pension credit or other means-tested benefits this winter. Unions have called for the government to reverse the cuts.
Britain has become more reliant on imports of American liquefied gas in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has contributed towards wholesale gas prices becoming more volatile.