Wholesale gas prices in the UK fell sharply today, Tuesday August 30. However, the wholesale prices remain 12 times higher than they were at the start of 2021.
The day-ahead UK wholesale price per therm fell by more than than 20% to 447p. And month-ahead contract prices dropped by 25% to 473p per therm, reports The Guardian.
It comes after Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said progress was being made in efforts to reopen the UK’s biggest gas storage facility. And The European Commission vowed to make interventions, including a long-term “structural reform of the electricity market”, while it works “flat out” on an emergency package.
Meanwhile, Liz Truss has been warned that exploring new drilling sites for oil and gas in the North Sea would not help with current energy bills, following reports she plans new licences as one of her first acts if she becomes Prime Minister. Greenpeace warned new oil and gas could take 25 years to pump out and “have no real impact on energy bills”, while exacerbating climate change.
Ms Truss would invite applications for drilling licences to explore new fields in the North Sea if she becomes prime minister, as well as push oil and gas firms to invest in their existing sites to maximise production, according to The Times. The newspaper reported that as many as 130 licences could be issued under the plans.
Earlier today, more councils have signalled using churches, community centres and libraries as so-called ‘warm banks’ for people unable to afford to heat their homes this winter. Birmingham, which is England’s biggest council serving 1.14 million people, has become the latest announcing measures either providing or sign-posting the hubs, by pledging to “map out spaces across the city where people can go to keep warm”.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England, said while local authorities were doing “all they can”, ‘warm banks’ were “not alternatives” to providing householders with “adequate resources” to make heating their homes affordable.
The Government has said it will continue to “make sure that people have got the resources to heat their own home”. It comes as the average householder’s yearly energy bill is set to rise from October to £3,549.
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