Today, the energy bill price cap changes. It will drop by 7% this summer, making the typical bill £1,568 a year. But July to September is a time when we use when we only use around 20% of the energy we need in our homes for the rest of the year. The price cap is set to rise again in October, when we start to use more energy.
From 1 July National Energy Action’s figures show 5.6 million UK households will be in fuel poverty.
Adam Scorer, Chief Executive of National Energy Action (NEA) says, ‘
Any drop in energy bills is welcome, but modest falls in summer look set to be wiped out by bigger rises in Autumn when people will need to put the heating back on.
The cost of energy remains an unaffordable luxury that many of the poorest simply cannot afford. Record levels of energy debt are crushing households. There is no adequate response.
Whoever is in power on 5 July inherits a fuel poverty crisis that causes misery, despair, ill-health and early death.
A new government will need a new plan. Social tariffs to make energy affordable. Help to Repay programmes to reduce the debt burden. Energy efficiency schemes to build fuel poverty out of the homes of the most vulnerable.’