Energy bills are rising 0.2% (£3) a year for a typical household from January 2026, energy regulator Ofgem has announced².
Energy bills remain hundreds of pounds a year higher than they were four years ago, before the energy crisis began. A typical household now pays almost £500 a year more than in 2021. Total energy debt is at record levels³.Ahead of Fuel Poverty Awareness Day, a critical Budget and the winter months, millions of households remain in fuel poverty, rationing their heating and cooking and living in cold, damp homes.
National Energy Action Chief Executive Adam Scorer says, ‘Energy bills remain impossibly high for millions across the UK, just as they have been for the last four years. Our energy advisers see the impacts of this every single day. People are rationing their heating, they are cutting back on cooking, they are deep in debt, and they are suffering in cold, damp homes.
‘With little prospect of bills falling significantly anytime soon, the government will need to act. This year the Budget falls on Fuel Poverty Awareness Day. I hope the government is sufficiently aware to deliver the urgent and long-term action needed to deliver affordably warm homes. Act to tackle the crippling levels of household energy debt. Take the cost of some environmental levies off the energy bills and recover those costs more fairly through taxation. Most importantly, structurally reduce fuel poverty through implementing its Warm Homes Plan in full, focused on those in greatest jeopardy from cold, damp and unhealthy homes.’
ENDS
Notes to editors
National Energy Action (NEA), is the national fuel poverty charity, working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to improve the lives of people in fuel poverty. We directly support people with energy and income maximisation advice, and we advocate on issues such as the current energy crisis and the need to improve the energy efficiency of our homes. See: www.nea.org.uk.
Ofgem announcement: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-release/energy-price-cap-will-rise-02-january
Consumer energy debt has reached £4.43 billion, three-quarters of which is arrears with no payment plan https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/data/debt-and-arrears-indicators.
If this goes online, please link to https://www.nea.org.uk/energy-crisis/. We are on Twitter/X: @NEA_UKCharity and Bluesky: @nea.org.uk.