Chancellor to look into energy price hikes
January 22, 2008
Homeowners across the UK received another blow recently, after finding out that no sooner had the interest rate been cut from 5.75% to 5.5%, easing financial difficulties for those with sky high mortgage repayments, the UK’s energy suppliers announced that they would be raising the cost of gas and electricity usage.
A number of energy suppliers, including Npower, British Gas, and EDF Energy, have already raised the prices on energy usage, so households will now have to cope with increased gas and electricity bills.
Energy companies have stated that the reason behind the energy price hikes is that the wholesale price of energy has risen again. This actually fell in price at the beginning of last year, and as a result consumers saw their gas and electricity usage costs slashed during the first part of the year. However, many families may now end up being pushed into fuel poverty again, as prices soar.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, as recently announced that he will be discussing the energy price hikes with senior officials from Ofgem, the energy regulator in the UK.
He recently wrote to Ofgem, stating: “I would be interested in receiving your assessment of gas and electricity supply and market conditions both in the UK and Europe and likely future trends. I would be particularly interested in your views on the relationship between wholesale price movements and feed-through to domestic retail prices.”
Darling plans to find out exactly why the price of energy is soaring again, and wants to look at future trends for energy prices as well as the immediate implications of the price rises.
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