Energy News

Average Bills Break the £1,000 Barrier

Tuesday 25 March, 2008

By Dan Drage

Following the announcement that Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will raise their rates as of April 1st, average annual energy bills are set to hit £1,000 per household.

The SSE dual fuel tariff will rise by £131, pushing annual bills up to £1,006 for those that pay by cash or cheque. Savings can still be made by paying through direct debit, or managing your own account online.

SSE are the last of the big six suppliers to hike prices, and with this inflation busting increase comes a new national annual average of £1,000 per household for energy services.

Npower (www.npower.com) was the first major household energy supplier in Britain to announce double digit price increases at the start of January, followed by EDF Energy (www.edfenergy.com), British Gas (www.britishgas.co.uk), Scottish Power (www.scottishpower.com) and E.On (www.eon-uk.com).

Utilities advice site energyhelpline.com predicts household energy bills will top £1200 by next winter.

Mark Todd, a director at energyhelpline, has the following to say:

‘As the last UK energy supplier to put up its prices this year, SSE has missed out on around 400 million pounds in revenue. It has not been all bad news for the supplier: as the company with the cheapest standard energy tariffs for the last two months, it has picked up tens of thousands customers who've chosen to switch.’

Chris Eagle, Commercial Manager at EnergyChoices, would like standard tariff customers to consider switching to an online tariff:

‘I’ll spell it out. If you’re a standard tariff customer who pays by cash or cheque, paying by direct debit saves you money, and switching to an online dual fuel tariff saves you money. It’s that simple. If you’re embittered by rising fuel costs, take the sting out and consider switching for savings.’

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