The energy price cap will rise to a whopping £3,549 and will "strike fear in the heart of many families".
On Friday morning, regulator Ofgem confirmed the price cap will increase from the current £1,971 to £3,549, which means millions of people will be landed with high bills. The 80.06% rise will come into effect for around 24 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on default energy tariffs on October 1, and will remain in place until December 31, when it will be adjusted again.
Ofgem's chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned of the hardship energy prices will cause this winter and urged the incoming Prime Minister and new Cabinet "to provide an additional and urgent response to continued surging energy prices". The regulator said the increase reflected the continued rise in global wholesale gas prices, which began to surge as the world unlocked from the Covid pandemic, and had been driven still higher to record levels by Russia slowly switching off gas supplies to Europe.
