Hello, very good morning. Thanks for
joining us. And uh we start with some
breaking news. The new energy price cap
has just been announced. Paul is here.
So what can you tell us, Paul?
>> Uh the energy price cap, so prices will
rise by 2% from October to December. So
the final quarter of the year, they do
these price reviews quarterly now, every
3 months. So that is an increase. Uh
currently an average household, a
typical household gas and electricity is
paying £1,720
a year for its energy uh according to
offjem which is the regulator. Uh this
uh latest cap increases the maximum this
is that um uh uh suppliers can charge.
This isn't the maximum you'll pay
because it depends on how much you use
but to 1755.
So, if you are a typical household, and
who knows if anyone actually is, you're
paying about £35 more. It's not very
much. It is an increase. Uh it's
obviously as we go into a quarter of the
year when people start the heating's
been off, hasn't it, the last 3 months.
If you do look at your smart meter, if
you've got one, it's been nice, hasn't
it? Because you've only been using power
uh for for the cold drinks in the
fridge, but it's the time when we turn
uh the heating on again. Uh and prices
will rise marginally. They went down 8%
in the second quarter of the year. So,
in the spring, so we're still net down
on that, but it is an increase. A and
the increase uh uh as as it as far as it
goes. Part of it is government policy,
the warm homes discount, which is £150
paid to people struggling with their
energy bills. It was part of the way of
making up for removing uh the um
universal payment uh to pensioners for
um for Winterfield, which was removed
and then reinstated. So, but that cost
of that payment to people who are
struggling falls on all of us as bill
payers. Uh the biggest driver is
wholesale gas prices. They've been
broadly level but volatile over the last
3 months when they assess the price.
Donald Trump, the impact of uh his uh
trade um policies on global demand that
pushed prices down a bit. We saw the
attacks by Israel on Iran which pushed
up prices because of concern about
liquid natural gas. So we're broadly
level but it is a small increase which
is obviously unwelcome.
>> Exactly small but nobody wants their
their energy prices to go up.
>> Absolutely not. And if we look across
the if we look across the piece um you
know prices this this typical fee was
about £1,200 before the invasion of
Ukraine by Russia. Uh we're here now.
They have come down from those huge
spikes when the government basically
underwrote all our energy bills at a
cost about 80 billion pounds. uh but
prices and we can see them here if we
look across the board look at the right
hand side the red bar that is where we
are today broadly leveled the previous
month but if you if you can scan across
if people's eyes can manage it across to
winter 2122 when it was about 1,200
that's a 40% increase and if we look at
the level we've been since since prices
fell away um in the middle of 2023 this
is the new normal of elevated prices and
the government's position is and most in
the industry it should be said is that
will only change um with gas prices
either falling sharply unlikely given
we've trying to switch off the pipelines
to Russia will only ultimately change
when we are the prices set by the
renewables that we're trying to put on
the grid and when we move off gas as our
default uh source of energy.
>> Yeah. And we're going to actually be
talking to offchairman a little later
this morning as well to to to get their
um understanding of of why energy prices
are going up by this 2%. Um, Paul,
thanks very much indeed.