British Gas customers will see their energy bills go up this winter. Sir Richard Carr, chairman of Centrica – the parent company of British Gas – says rises are inevitable.
Carr's admission comes just days after ScottishPower's price hike announcement, pushing its average gas bills up by 19% and electricity by 10%.
Tom Lyon, energy expert for comparison website uSwitch, says he would be "absolutely staggered" if British Gas and the rest of the big six don't push up their prices.
British Gas, the largest UK energy supplier, refuses to comment on how much its own energy prices will go up by but Carr has come out citing the government's green energy policies for future rises.
"Ofgem has said that it would see over the next decade a dual fee bill going up by £500 a year for a typical consumer and that's related to decarbonisation rather than market forces," he says.
The chairman's comments echo those of ScottishPower's UK retail director Raymond Jack, who in part blames the "rising burden of non-energy costs" for providers charging more for gas and electric:
"The cost of meeting government environmental and social programmes and the cost of distributing electricity on the national grid, has placed further upward pressure on energy bills."
13.06.2011 – Moneywise
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