The scale and damage of the body blow to Britain is suddenly and shockingly real. British consumers face an 80% rise in their energy bills from 1 October, the regulator Ofgem confirmed on Friday morning. In just five weeks’ time, the current annual energy price cap will balloon from £1,971, which itself seemed a spectacular level when it was set in April, to a barely believable £3,549. This means hardship for all and misery for millions. It is an insufferable event. No decent society can allow it to happen.
The magnitude of the latest leap in prices is not unexpected. It has been signalled for months by a volatile energy market and by Russian geopolitics. It is still a breathtaking threat to ordinary life, a tripling of the price of the average dual-fuel domestic tariff in less than a year. But the impact will soon be greater – and the effects more terrible. In January the cap will rise further, perhaps by the same amount again. In April it will soar yet again.
