UK households face 4% rise in energy bills to average of £1,723 from October – business live

Gas and electricity bills rise to highest level in three years

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UK households face a jump in energy bills to the highest in three years this winter, after soaring market prices triggered by the Iran war fed through to the government’s energy price cap.

As a start, we removed VAT from electricity bills to give everyone some breathing space. This is on top of the £150 we removed from energy bills in the budget in April.

Higher wholesale gas prices will more than offset the impact of Andy Burnham’s move to remove VAT from electricity bills.

That said, this will have relatively little impact on headline inflation. Ofgem’s price cap is based on typical use for dual-fuel households, but some households will only use electricity, where prices will probably fall, and in turn electricity has a much bigger weight within the consumer prices basket basket.