After spate of rises, now Scottishpower says its bills ‘must’ go up
ScottiShPower customers face higher energy bills after parent company iberdrola admitted in a stock exchange announcement that it had “no option” but to increase tariffs in the UK.
the firm, which has not so far commented on its pricing position, told The Scotsman that it would be forced to up its prices before the end of the year, following in the footsteps of its major competitors.
the admission comes as the coalition government suffered a major rift yesterday over its economic policy when Lib Dem chief Secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander, rejected Prime Minister David cameron’s announcement that the government will cut energy bills by “rolling back the green taxes”.
in an announcement of its third-quarter results to the Spanish stock exchange, Bilbaobased iberdrola said the UK business had been affected by “tight margins aggravated by energy efficiency and environmental measures imposed by the regulator”. “As a consequence, generation and supply is now loss-making and leaves the company no option but to increase tariffs,” it wrote.
Moves to decarbonise the energy sector have resulted in hefty penalties on utility companies. But the firms have come under fire for passing the burden on to the consumer.
earlier this week, npower became the third of the “Big Six” energy companies to hike prices amid claims of spiralling wholesale costs and stringent green energy taxes. only ScottishPower, e.oN and eDF have not yet raised their tariffs.
But Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer at ScottishPower, admitted that prices would “inevitably” go up over the next two months, pointing to a £23 million loss in its UK retail and generation arm.
“A number of our competitors have put prices up,” he said. “we have the same cost pressures as they do and prices are going to go up, undoubtedly.”
he said the conundrum of decarbonising the energy industry by encouraging customers to use less gas and electricity – and therefore reduce their bills – had