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Consumers face 'record energy bills'
Originally posted by 5corpio
Consumers face 'record energy bills'
Rises in wholesale gas and oil prices coupled with political unrest and natural disasters mean energy tariffs will increase over coming months, says comparison site
Householders face record high energy bills this summer following a sustained rise in wholesale gas and oil prices over the past year.
Joe Malinowski of energy comparison website TheEnergyShop.com said rumours of another round of energy price rises are emerging, with suggestions the increases could be announced this month.
He said: "Wholesale gas prices have been rising rapidly driven by the higher price of oil and by concerns over supply disruptions as a result of violence in Libya and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The latter has led to a diversion of LNG [liquefied natural gas] cargoes to Japan in response to a shutdown of nuclear generation capacity.
"It is now very likely we will see further increases in energy prices that will take energy bills to record levels. On top of rising commodity costs energy suppliers also face rising infrastructure and environmental charges, the impact of which is more difficult to quantify.
"Average energy bills are £177 higher today than they were three years ago when wholesale prices were at comparable levels, so energy suppliers have plenty of additional revenue – £4bn pounds of it – to cover higher non-commodity..........Read more HERE
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Britons face massive rises in their gas and electricity bills, the Bank of England warned as it laid out its latest forecasts for inflation.
The Bank's projections for the economy assume that between the coming July and March next year the UK will see a 15pc rise in domestic gas prices and a 10pc rise in domestic electricity prices.
Just three months ago, the Bank was only expecting a 5pc increase for households' gas prices to come in final quarter of this year.
The Bank cited the soaring cost of crude oil and gas, driven upwards by the turmoil in the Middle East, for the looming rises in utility bills. Futures prices for Brent oil, London's benchmark oil, have risen about 16pc in the past three months, it said, while futures prices for wholesale gas were 18pc higher.
Households' climbing energy bills will help the headline rate of inflation, currently double the official target at 4pc, come close to hitting
The number of people running up debts with their energy supplier has nearly tripled during the past four years, a charity has warned.
The Money Advice Trust, which runs National Debtline, said it had seen a 181pc jump in the number of people seeking advice for fuel debts since 2007.
It added that during the past 12 months there had been a 10pc rise in the level of consumers who were unable to stay on top of their utility bills, making the area one of the fastest growing problems it dealt with.
The situation has been caused by the steep rise in energy prices seen during the past couple of years, combined with the growing squeeze on people's finances due to higher taxes and increases in the cost of living, at a time when wage growth is muted.
The charity warned that people should treat fuel debt as a so-called priority debt, and put money towards clearing it before they worried about other debts, such as unsecured borrowing, or they risked having their energy suppl......Read more HERE