For Miles Pearson, heating his home
throughout the winter is a
non-negotiable. He works remotely and
his condition makes that impossible in
the cold. I have something called
arthrorosis,
which is essentially contraur.
Now, in the winter time, my joints
become stiff and become painful. So
having the heating on daily is such a
big help for me and it means I can do my
job, work and contribute to society.
>> For anyone already worried about bills,
any price rise is bad news. Today's
announcement means gas and electricity
prices will rise by 2%. A household
using a typical amount of energy will
pay £1,755
a year, up £35. on a default tariff.
It's roughly two pounds extra for every
100 pounds currently spent.
Latest figures show more than a third of
customers are now on fixed tariffs,
which means they're protected from the
upcoming rise.
>> It's important to recognize that it is a
cap. There are much cheaper deals
available on the market. I would very
much urge people to shop around. You can
save yourself around £200 a year by
shopping around and looking at fixed
deals.
The government says producing more green
energy domestically will bring prices
down, but in the short term, its own
policy is contributing to the rise.
>> More than 2 million more households will
receive £150 in the warm homes discount
to make sure that those who will
struggle to pay bills the most get the
support to do that. But everything we're
doing as a government is to move as fast
as possible to remove that volatility of
gas prices so that we bring down bills
for good. But there are plenty of people
like Miles who don't qualify for that
discount.
>> I think a social tariff would be really
good in this situation. Something that
means that disabled people can get
discounts on their energy bills and
something where they can access that
pretty easily.
>> Household energy debts reached a record
high at the end of last winter. This
higher than predicted price rise will
reignite the debate over affordability.
Carrie Davis, ITV News.
>> Rob, this 2% is more than expected. Why
are we seeing this rise now?
>> Yeah, it has been a surprise that we've
seen it as we said there go up by 2% not
the 1% that previously uh we thought
that it would go up by. There are a few
factors at play here. I mean the big one
is still and has been for many years now
the war in Ukraine because of course
previously this was an area that
provided Europe with a lot of gas
ourselves you know the same here in the
United Kingdom. So that has pushed
prices up and prices have stayed up ever
since Russia's invasion back in 2022 but
also we're seeing new factors brought in
now. So things like Trump's tariffs of
course we're having to factor those into
to the prices that we're seeing on the
global energy market as well and just
the price of keeping the infrastructure
going as well. We're getting into winter
now or at least we will be very very
soon and a lot of the energy companies
are out there doing a lot of maintenance
on the network. That of course also
costs money.
>> Talk me through how the cap exactly
works. What it is for people.
>> Yeah. So it's always worth remembering
that this isn't the maximum amount that
your bills will be. What this is is
actually a cap on the unit price that
you will be charged. So for a kilowatt
hour of electricity and of gas. So don't
go out there and use as much gas or
electricity as you want to because you
think that your bills are going to be
capped. That isn't the case. But it's
just a cap on the amount that the energy
companies can charge us to be connected
to the network.
>> Who's this going to be affecting the
most?
>> Yes. So I mean millions of households
will of course be affected by this. Now
it's worth remembering that a lot of
people out there already will be on
fixed deals or at least they might be.
So if you're on a fixedterm energy deal,
so you know, you fixed your price maybe
earlier on in the year, you won't
necessarily be affected unless your your
energy bill is going to come to an end.
That fixed rate term is going to come to
an end. But it's going to affect anyone
who is currently on a variable tariff.
It could affect anyone who, you know, is
out there looking for a new deal at the
moment. But of course, those who it's
going to impact the most are those that
are already struggling to pay their
energy bills. You know, we know that
millions of people are struggling with
household bills at the moment. the cost
of living is is still a huge issue for
for a lot of people. So, this just adds
to to that difficulty for for so many.
>> What can people do before October to the
first to make sure they're in the best
position possible?
>> Yeah. So, I mentioned there fixedterm
energy deals, people who are on a fixed
deal. Now, if you aren't on a fixed deal
at the moment, we would recommend having
a bit of a shop around, see what's out
there. So we had a bit of a look earlier
this month at which and we found that
there are currently 20 tariffs on offer
which are below this energy price cap.
So you can currently fix below the price
cap. What we'd recommend is you don't
fix for any longer than 12 months and
make sure that any deal that you do go
with doesn't have any early exit fees or
anything like that as well because you
want to have the flexibility that if
something does happen, you can either
get out of that deal if you need to or
maybe you might be able to lock in
further if we see different uh
fluctuations in the price cap in the
coming months.
>> This cap is fixed now for 3 months. Now
you've said there people should look at
maybe getting fixed price for 12 months.
Is there any chance bills could go down?
Why is that the better thing to do?
>> Yeah. So looking slightly further ahead,
obviously, you know, we we've had the
announcement that we've had, but looking
further ahead, so in another three
months, so we're getting into obviously
the middle of winter and then into next
spring, what the market analysts are
predicting is that the price cap is
going to stay roughly similar, but we
are expecting another rise next time
round as well. So the fact that we are
expecting it to go up again by a little
bit more, maybe another another few
percent means that now is the time to
fix because if you are on a variable
tariff that is linked to the price cap,
then that variable tariff will go up and
up in the coming months potentially.
>> When people are shopping around thinking
of changing supply, are there any sort
of red flags or warning signs people
should look out for to say don't go with
those people? Yeah, I mean I would say
is it is difficult at the moment because
we've seen since the energy prices
increased massively that we lost a lot
of suppliers from the market. So there
isn't as much choice out there as there
has been previously. But there are still
a lot of good companies out there that
still dominate quite a large part of the
market. I mean customer service is a is
a huge one. So definitely go out there
and have a look at the customer service
ratings of these companies. Yes,
obviously you have to look at the price
that they're going to offer you, but
look at the customer service rating
because that ultimately is what's going
to be really important to you if
something does go wrong or if you are
someone who is really really struggling
at the moment. You want to know that
you're going to be able to get hold of
that energy company and that maybe they
will be able to offer you something like
a new repayment plan or access to maybe
a hardship fund that some of these
companies have as well. So, you want to
know that you can get hold of them when
you need them. For anybody who's already
in debt to energy companies or perhaps
is worried that they're going to get
into that position come this winter,
what advice for them?
>> Yeah, so your first port of call really
should be contact your energy provider.
So contact the company who are providing
your energy because they are obligated
to help in the situation like this if
you are struggling. So contact them and
they should be able to offer you some
different options. I mentioned a little
bit earlier on there payment plans. So
maybe changing the frequency of your
payments, maybe rather than paying
monthly, you're paying every six weeks,
every couple of months, and also
bringing down your payments themselves.
So hopefully that should ease the
pressure on some people. And if you
aren't on a smart meter, I would suggest
that you take as many meter readings as
frequently as you possibly can because
then you aren't relying on the companies
estimating your bills because we see a
lot of the time that the estimates are
actually higher than the amount of
energy that you have actually used.
>> Rob, some very thorough advice there.
Thank you ever so much.
>> Thank you.