Every household in the country will see their energy bills increase by at least £67 a month from 1 April as the energy bills crisis continues.
Dubbed April Fuels Day by campaigners, who are staging a mass lobby of MPs at over 70 locations across the country on Saturday, the increase in bills is caused by the Energy Bills Support Scheme coming to an end.
Figures from the Warm This Winter campaign have revealed that more than a quarter of people (29%) are already in debt to their energy companies even before the price rise. With Debt Justice calculating that those on prepayment meters have combined debts of £1bn.
An investigation by Bloomberg has uncovered that three energy firms have added half a billion pounds to energy bills by manipulating the electricity market by powering down their generators at peak times, only to then demand a much higher price from the Grid.
Figures from National Energy Action also reveals that standing charges, which customers pay every day to access the grid regardless of use, will hit a new high from 1 April – up 64%. It means that almost half (41%) of what those in the poorest households spend on energy will now go solely on these daily fees.
A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition commented:
“People are being taken for fools. The Government is saying that it is providing support to households, but the reality is that everyone’s bills are going up.
“Even when market conditions return to energy bills later in 2023, people will still be paying double for their energy than they were in 2020.
“Meanwhile, every week we learn about new ways the energy firms are profiting from the misery of households. The latest revelations about energy firms’ excesses show just how broken Britain’s energy system is.
“This week was supposed to be the Government’s big energy security announcement, but instead we got a dump of thousands of pages of policy and data with no real substance.”
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign added:
“The government has finally recognised that Britain’s energy system is broken but, by its own admission, its plans this week won’t do anything to lower our energy bills.
“Its rehashed policies on energy efficiency fall miles short of the national programme of insulation and home upgrades that is needed, and it continues to deny communities access to onshore wind, which is among the cheapest energy sources around and a resource we have in abundance.”
“Instead Ministers are handing billions in subsidies to oil and gas developments that won’t lower bills or boost UK energy security, as most of its oil for export. It’s beyond time that this government delivered real policies that address the big issues affecting people’s lives, not least eye-watering energy bills.”