The price of gas and electricity is soaring in Britain and many millions of people are likely to be pushed into fuel poverty. And this is even with an “energy price cap”. Perhaps weirdly to many, nothing has actually gone wrong in terms of what the price cap was designed to do. But something clearly is going wrong since energy is becoming more and more unaffordable.
In short, the cap prevents the retail part of the energy supply chain (the companies that send you a bill) from making excessive profits, but places no restrictions on the production and wholesale parts. And massive increases in wholesale costs since the pandemic and the Ukraine invasion have been passed on to households (and businesses, who are not protected by the cap).
