TWO of Britain's biggest energy suppliers announced more bad news for households yesterday with steep rises in gas and electricity prices.
ScottishPower, which has 2.5 million customers in Scotland, increased the price of its gas by an average of 34 per cent. Electricity prices went up 9 per cent.
Npower, which has 90,000 customers in Scotland and 6.8 million across Britain, raised g
as prices by an average of 26 per cent, with electricity prices up 14 per cent.
Both companies blamed rising wholesale costs, saying they had made current prices unsustainable.
On average, medium-use Npower gas customers will see an annual increase of £164, with electricity bills rising by £59.
ScottishPower said a dual-fuel customer would see bills increase by £275, but added that 1.2 million of its customers were protected by fixed-price tariffs.
The two companies are the last of the country's big six suppliers to hit households with increases in recent weeks, following moves by British Gas, EDF, E.On and Scottish & Southern Energy.
Defending the decision to raise prices, Npower claimed that until yesterday its domestic gas prices had been the same as they were 18 months ago after a price cut in 2007 and an increase in January, but that wholesale costs had doubled.
Npower managing director Giuseppe Di Vita said: "I'm sorry we've had to increase our prices, and we've made this decision extremely reluctantly, especially as household budgets are being squeezed so much.
"There is help available for people who can't afford to pay their bills and we want our customers to get in touch if they're worried."
Following its price announcement, ScottishPower offered a new tariff guaranteeing prices until December 2009.
Willie MacDiarmid, ScottishPower's director of energy retail, said: "These are difficult times and we understand the financial impact this announcement will have on our customers.
"Although we're one of the last companies to announce increases, we're sorry we couldn't hold on any longer. However, we have worked very hard to protect people for as long as possible from these considerable increases in the wholesale market.
"We have tried hard to keep electricity prices as low as possible and our increase of 9 per cent is the lowest in the sector.
"The continuing volatility in the global market for gas is directly contributing to increasing the UK's domestic energy prices and ScottishPower is not immune to these rises."
The price hikes mean that 2008 has set a new record for energy price increases in a single year in the decade since the market was opened up.
Average prices have risen 38 per cent in 2008, eclipsing 2006 when average prices rose by 32 per cent.
Tim Wolfenden, head of home Services at uSwitch.com, said after yesterday's announcement: "The industry-wide shift to higher household energy prices is now complete. All the major suppliers have increased prices for a second time this year – this is a heavy blow and few households will emerge unscathed or unconcerned about the future affordability of their energy."
He said consumers now had to seek out the lowest possible price for their energy and learn to use less of it.
Consumer group Energywatch yesterday called for the government to bring forward a plan that will provide real support to consumers struggling to pay energy bills.
Energywatch's director of campaigns, Adam Scorer, said: "There is strong expectation that the government will shortly announce a raft of measures to protect the most vulnerable. Action is long overdue. Token gestures will achieve little."
He added that a report from the industry watchdog Ofgem examining the price rises had to trigger the necessary action to restore competition.
The full article contains 621 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
