Suppliers pile pressure on government over energy bills

Energy suppliers have urged the government to take immediate action to help households struggling with energy bills this winter, after domestic gas prices rose on Thursday (1 October) and forecasts pointed to steep increases in the new year.

Energy UK, the suppliers’ trade body, said ministers “cannot afford to wait” for a deeper crisis to develop before intervening. The BBC revealed earlier this week that forecasters expect a 16% rise in domestic energy prices in the new year for around 20 million households on variable tariffs under Ofgem’s price cap.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the government was considering “any measure that took the pressure off.”

Households in England, Scotland and Wales on Ofgem’s variable price cap were hit with a 4% increase at the start of October — about £60 a year, or £5 a month — taking the typical dual-fuel direct-debit annual bill to £1,723 if sustained. Cornwall Insight forecasts the same typical bill rising to £1,999 in January 2027.

Energy UK acknowledged support already provided, including a cut in VAT on electricity bills on Thursday and the cancellation or shift of some levies into taxation earlier this year. But it said those savings had been wiped out by high wholesale prices, driven in part by conflict in the Middle East and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — echoing the 2022 price surge that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dhara Vyas, Energy UK’s chief executive, said: “We cannot afford to wait for the same scale of crisis before acting again. We must heed the lessons from that time.” She warned that last-minute emergency interventions “run the risk of being badly targeted and costing us all more,” and noted growing customer debt adds an average £67 a year to everyone’s bills.

The trade body called for targeted support beyond the £150 Warm Home Discount, leading to a discounted social tariff; a debt relief scheme for the most severely affected households alongside measures to prevent further debt build-up; and the removal of more levies from electricity bills, shifting them into taxation as part of wider electrification.

EDF Energy boss Simone Rossi warned on Thursday that the UK was “walking into a second energy crisis.” At last week’s Labour Party conference, Burnham told the BBC he would not call Rossi’s warning an overstatement, adding the cost of home energy, petrol and diesel was “very difficult indeed.”

Sources

• BBC News, “Suppliers pile pressure on government over energy bills” (Kevin Peachey, Cost of living correspondent, 3 October 2026): https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq0ld88kzxw8o