UK’s Energy Bills Could Increase by 50% in 2022

LONDON (Sputnik) – UK energy chief executive Emma Pinchbeck on Thursday warned that customers could be faced with energy bills up to 50% higher next year unless the government intervenes to address soaring wholesale global gas prices.

“It's looking pretty serious for the spring. Domestic energy bills are going to go up 45-50%,” the head of the trade body told BBC Radio 4's Today program.

She said the UK government should follow the example of other European governments that have cut taxes and asked large users from the industrial and commercial sectors to reduce demand in order to ease the impact on the domestic sector.

Flames come out of a domestic gas ring

© REUTERS / LEE SMITH

“We are asking our Treasury to intervene as other governments have. When it comes to bills, it's worth remembering that less than a fifth is in the control of suppliers,” Pinchbeck said.

The UK’s price cap on energy bills stops suppliers from immediately passing those costs on to their customers, but on 1 October, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets set a record cap of £1,277 ($1,714).

Despite the cap price increase, which is expected to go even higher on 1 April, more than 20 large and small energy companies have been forced out of the market in the UK, forcing the regulator to find new suppliers for over 2 million households.