EDF announces biggest winter energy price hike
EDF becomes the latest power company to raise its energy prices, by a bigger margin than its competitors British Gas, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power and npower.
The company today announced a 10.8 per cent increase in its retail gas and electricity tariffs, the biggest increase among the UK’s six main energy suppliers. E.on is the only supplier which has implemented a freeze on power costs for its residential customers.
On average, energy costs will increase by 7 per cent for UK households this winter.
EDF, like its competitors, has blamed the increase on higher wholesale and energy distribution costs and the costs of government renewable and energy efficiency schemes.
Wholesale UK gas prices have risen 24 per cent over the past two months and electricity prices have followed a similar trend, mainly due to jitters over imports from Norway and a lower supply of shipped liquefied gas.
However, EDF also said today that its tariffs will remain lower than those of all other energy suppliers.
“Not welcome”
Martin Lawrence, managing director of energy sourcing and customer supply, said: “We know that customers will not welcome this news and do not want to see prices going up.
“Our new prices will however be cheaper on average than those of all the other major suppliers which have announced standard price rises so far this autumn.
“We’ve taken extra measures to make sure the most vulnerable benefit from the best deals and we continue to help customers reduce their bills with energy efficiency measures.”
Earlier this month the UK’s main energy suppliers all announced energy price increases. Npower announced that gas and electricity prices would increase by 8.8 per cent and 9.1 per cent respectively.
Scottish and Southern Energy has announced prices will increase by 9 per cent and British Gas has announced an average increase of 6 per cent. Scottish Power will increase prices by an average of 7 per cent.
Fuel poverty
Consumer group uSwitch estimates that the increases will add an extra £753m to household energy costs, tipping 314,000 more homes into “fuel poverty” – where more than 10 per cent of household income is spent on utility bills.
“This is the final hammer blow for energy bills this side of Christmas,” said uSwitch’s director of consumer policy, Ann Robinson.
“Consumers now face a winter of rationing their energy usage – many will be forced to turn their heating down or off for fear of the impact of these hikes.”
The government has said it intends to use the law to help consumers find the lowest energy tariffs and urged them to switch between suppliers for the best deal.
The impact on household energy bills will also mean the UK can expect inflation increases in the future, despite a fall in inflation this month.