Guess what next? Your gas bill will be going up
FAMILIES face a wave of energy price hikes after Britain’s cold snap pushed up the cost of gas by almost 400 per cent.
Utility companies are believed to be preparing to raise household bills to cover the increased cost of the gas they buy on the wholesale market.
Last night industry experts predicted bills could rise by as much as £60 a year as Big Six providers try to ease the squeeze on their profits. With Britain in the grip of the Beast from the East, furious British Gas customers also face a wait of up to ten days for an engineer to visit to fix a broken boiler.
The delays mean homeowners, including the elderly, housebound and vulnerable, could go without central heating or hot water through the weekend as temperahave tures plummet. British Gas was receiving complaints at the rate of 100 every hour via social media yesterday as those with broken boilers became desperate.
The gas price hikes started on Thursday – the coldest day of the year so far – when Eon scrapped a range of discounts worth up to £50. Now others are expected to follow suit.
Mark Todd, director of Energyhelpline, said: ‘History says that when one Big Six supplier hikes its prices the rest follow suit. A round of small price hikes of up to 5 per cent, which adds about £60 a year to bills, seems likely.’
Britain is heavily reliant on imports of gas from abroad, including imports of liquefied natural gas by tanker.
The wholesale price, however, depends on global supply and demand. When a cold snap hits Northern Europe the cost typically rockets as homes and buildings crank up the heating.
On February 21, firms paid 59p for every kilowatt hour of gas. But by Thursday the price had risen to £2.33 – an increase of almost 400 per cent. Fears about supply been made worse by outages at terminals in Scotland, Wales and Morecambe, Lancashire.
On top of this energy companies have seen their profits squeezed – and last week British Gas owner Centrica reported profits had fallen by 92 per cent to only £4million.
Eon’s price changes, which start on April 19, will affect more than two million customers on its standard tariff. The firm has added £20 to bills where customers pay by cash or cheque and has also ditched its £20 dual-fuel discount for taking both gas and electricity.
Henry de Zoete, of autoswitching service Look After My Bills, labelled the move ‘sneaky’, adding: ‘Once again the Big Six plumbs new depths of disgracefulness. Everybody should batten down the hatches for more Big Six price rises.’
Peter Earl, of Comparethemarket.com, called it a ‘stealth hike’. Eon said it had reviewed its tariffs ‘in light of rising costs along with other factors in the market’.
As British Gas customers faced lengthy waits for boiler repairs, some said they had been forced to retreat to bed with hot water bottles.
Many families are signed up to the firm’s HomeCare service, which can cost over £400 a year and should guarantee a swift response. Problems were made worse when two call centres north of the Border were effectively shut when staff were unable to get into work.
Vulnerable customers have found it impossible to get through on helplines. Many of those directed to its website were told the earliest available appointment is March 12. One customer wrote online: ‘Let’s hope there are no deaths on your hands.’
British Gas said engineers are working ‘virtually round the clock’ to deal with the backlog.
It said staff were going ‘above and beyond’ to meet demand – including engineers walking to appointments.
‘New depths of disgracefulness’