Big rise in prices in Britain.
From today, the British expect much bigger bills for the energy used. The state energy regulator raised the price limit by 54 percent, the biggest jump since 2017 that began limiting price increases.
Due to the increase in the price of electricity and gas, the number of households that are “in difficulty in paying the bills”, ie those who spend at least 10 percent of total income on energy bills, will double. There may soon be 5 million such families in Britain.
“Millions of people will have trouble paying for heating and electricity,” said Adam Scorer, chief executive of National Energy Action, an anti-poverty charity.
Since early October last year, British bills have risen by 12 per cent as wholesale gas prices jumped to record levels due to the global natural gas supply crisis. Analysts expect that there may be an additional rise in prices in the fall, because the invasion of Ukraine spoiled the situation in the market.
The Resolution Foundation, an organization that analyzes living standards, estimates that if prices rise further in October, the number of British households struggling to pay their energy bills could reach 7.5 million – almost a third of all households in the United Kingdom.