Help on rising energy bills is expected to be announced today.
Energy bills are set to rocket £465 but help is coming (Image: Getty)
Households are facing a ‘nightmare’ 27% rise in energy bills in January which will add £465 onto the average, typical use households’ dual fuel energy bills – but help is set to be announced in the Budget today.
Money expert Martin Lewis met Chancellor John Healey this morning ahead of the Budget speech to Parliament, where the government already confirmed plans to axe the hated standing charges from gas bills which will save anyone with a gas supply a total of £108 a year.
But Martin warned ITV’s GMB viewers this morning that the real ‘nightmare’ is that Ofgem is set to hike average energy bills by another 27% in January following rises in the cost of wholesale gas, meaning the current £1,723 illustrative figure would rise by another £465.
However, Martin said that ‘reading between the lines’, the Chancellor hinted that further support for energy bills will be announced this afternoon.
The MoneySavingExpert founder, who had been in No 11 on the morning of the fiscal statement, said on X: “I’ve just come out of a meeting with the Chancellor.
“The gas standing charge will be scrapped in 2027 (my guess, either for 1 Oct price cap or the 1 Jan 28 price cap).
“Having campaigned against the moral hazard of standing charges for years, I’m pleased.
“It’s currently £108 a year. That cost will be shifted onto unit rates. We don’t know how much yet, but I suspect just under 1p per kwH.
“The Chancellor also said he will be talking to Ofgem about how they get rid of the charge on electricity as well, but that is ‘trickier’ apparently and will take longer.”
Mr Lewis said “about 60% of people will pay less due to this, 40% more”, with the dividing line “somewhere around 12,500 kilowatt hours of gas,” as he called for support for vulnerable higher users who will have to pay more.
He continued: “That’s all long-term. The biggest issue in energy right now is that we’re expecting a 27% rise in the price cap in January.
“I asked the Chancellor whether he will be intervening on that. He told me I’d have to wait for the Budget, but reading between the lines, yes, there will be an announcement today.
“Whether it’s an increase in the warm home discount, or whether it’s council tax (band-related), or whether it’s done via a payout for people in say council tax bands A-D as a proxy for household income as Rishi Sunak did who knows.”
The Greens said Chancellor John Healey’s move to scrap standing charges on gas bills amounted to “tinkering”.
A party spokesperson said: “Abolishing standing charges is more tinkering from a Government that is failing to take the bold action needed to end the cost-of-living crisis.
“Energy bills have skyrocketed in recent years and are set to rise by hundreds of pounds again this winter.
“‘Hope’ is an easy thing to promise but will not be delivered by a business-as-usual Budget.”