UK: Customers braced for further energy price rises

Homeowners could face a fresh round of energy price rises after the UK’s second biggest domestic energy supplier warned that it is likely to impose higher prices on customers before long.

Scottish & Southern Energy, which has 8.8 million UK customers, said it was becoming “more difficult by the day” to resist raising prices despite the price of oil falling from $147 to around $125 a barrel in recent days.
Chief executive Ian Marchant said it was becoming increasing difficult to keep retail energy prices down, as wholesale prices soar. “The extent of the energy shock with which the entire global economy is having to contend has been well-documented, and its full impact on prices for electricity and gas in the UK has still to be felt,” he said.

“We are continuing to resist the pressure to put up prices for domestic customers, but doing so is becoming more difficult by the day.”

SSE’s warning is the latest sign that households having to cope with soaring food and fuel prices should also brace themselves for higher energy bills.

Telegraph