Energy News

Scottish and Southern Energy Hikes prices by 18%

By Martin Fagan - news@consumerchoices.co.uk

SSE is third of “big six” to announce price increases in last six weeks, 5.2m households affected.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has become the latest of the “big six” energy companies to announce it will increase gas and electricity prices.

SSE said it will increase prices for household electricity by an average of 11% and household gas by 18% on 14 September 2011. After that, it will not implement another household energy price increase before August 2012 at the earliest, but added that a sustained fall in wholesale energy costs “would allow household prices to be reduced”.

The company says the price increases will impact on 5.2 million household electricity customers and around 3.6 million household gas customers in Great Britain. SSE last increased gas prices in December 2010, but has held electricity prices since August 2008.

The rise by SSE follows similar price hikes from both Scottish Power and British Gas. In early June, Scottish Power said it would raise the cost of gas by 19% and the cost of electricity by 10%.Two weeks ago, British Gas's announced an 18% rise in gas prices and a 16% increase to electricity prices. Both companies’ price hikes will come into effect in August

“Currently, consumers cannot tell whether these increases are justified and that stokes the lack of trust in energy firms,” said Mike O'Connor, chief executive of energy watchdog, Consumer Focus.

“Suppliers point to rising wholesale costs. Yet although wholesale prices have risen recently, they remain around a third lower than their 2008 peak.”

The news will pile further woe onto cash strapped Brits who have already seen household energy bills rocket by 71% in just over five years which has resulted in 6.3 million households - almost a quarter - living in fuel poverty, according to recent research from independent switching service, uSwitch.com.

In May, SSE reported that its annual pre-tax profits had increased by 29% to £2.1billion.