UK: Two energy firms to raise prices

…E.On said it would up its gas prices by 26% and electricity bills by 16% on 22 August for domestic customers.

Scottish and Southern followed a few hours later by announcing a 29.2% increase in gas bills, with electricity tariffs up by 19.2% on 25 August.

Both blamed an increase in wholesale costs for the latest rises – the second in a year.

…”The world is experiencing an energy shock of a kind not seen since the early 1970s,” said Alistair Phillips-Davies, the company’s energy supply director.

“Energy suppliers have to take steps towards covering their costs and I am sorry that we cannot delay these price rises any longer.”

…”The brakes have come off the market,” he told the BBC.

He said that the “good times” of self-sufficiency from the North Sea gas supply – which meant the UK’s gas prices were the lowest in Europe – were over and so rising prices should be expected.

BBC